Being a Curtis Girl
by HollyKaySmith
Summary: Lori Curtis is a normal sixteen year old, only she has 7 brothers, 3 biological and 4 just.. well extended family. We follow through her life to see her fall in love, fall out of love, see The Outsiders events through her eyes and a lot more!
1. Chapter 1

Okay so yes I'm posting another story! But I've actually thought about this story and I think I know where I want to go with it. So this is only a little bit of the first chapter and I want to know what you guys think  So leave a review and if it gets good feedback I'll update it this Weekend as well as my other Outsiders story 'Why me' Thanks guys 

Lori Curtis was a sixteen year old girl who lived with her three brothers Darrel, at the age of twenty he was the eldest Curtis sibling and was responsible for all of them, Sodapop being the second oldest at age seventeen, he had dropped out of high school to work in a gas station called The DX, and Ponyboy who was the youngest sibling at age fourteen. But as well as the three biological brothers, she had four others, Steve Randle who was Sodapop best friends, an arrogant jerk, great mechanic but at times he could actually be a nice guy, Two-Bit Matthews, real name Kith who was by far the funniest person in the group and had a scary obsession with Micky Mouse, he also loved beer with chocolate cake, Johnny Cade who was like a lost puppy who everyone loved apart from what seemed to be his parents who physically and mentally abused him, and then Dallas Winston a hood from New York, he had a record at the police station a mile long, he was tough and was very protective of Johnny and Lori, although he showed it in different ways between the two.

It was Friday, and Lori had made plans to go to a party with her boyfriend Robby, he was also part of the Tiber Street Tigers, a big gang known about on the east side and Darry sure as hell didn't like his little sister going out with a tiger.

"Hey guys!" It was 7:30pm when Lori walked into the Curtis' kitchen wearing a black mini skirt, a very revealing red top and Robby's jean jacket.

"Hey Lor-" Steve cut mid-sentence when he looked up from his cards letting out a low whistle; Two-Bit looked up from his deck of cards as well.

"Well Lori, don't you look fine this evening! Where you off too?" Two-Bit asked curious as to where she was going dressed like that.

"There's a party on the Tiber Street Tigers turf that Robby is taking me too."

"You're not going that party." Steve said, as well as Darry, the rest of the gang didn't approve of Lori's relationship with Robby.

"Yes I am, and you can't stop me." Lori picked up her purse and made her way to the front door.

"Darry I think you better get in here!" Steve shouted Darry who was currently in the kitchen washing up from dinner.

"Oh yeah Steve, call the big brother in!" Lori shot Steve a look before smiling at Darry as soon as he walked into the room, "Hi Darry, my wonderful big brother!"

"What have you done or what are you going to do? And don't think you're going anywhere dressed like that." Darry said taking one look at Lori's outfit.

"She thinks she's going a party on the Tiber Street Tigers turf." Steve said, focusing on his game once again.

"Like hell you are!"

"Dar, relax I'll be with Robby!" Lori said re-applying her make-up.

"Even more of a reason for you not to go." Darry said sitting down in his arm chair picking up the newspaper from earlier that morning.

"Darry he's my boyfriend!" Lori half shouted at her eldest brother.

"Yeah, and I know what boyfriends and girlfriends end up doing at parties and I sure as hell know what Robby Ford is like! You're not going end of!" Darry said firmly.

"This is so unfair!" Lori through her bag onto the sofa and stormed back of into her room.

After 10 minuets of sulking in her room Lori came up with a plan, she got some of her clothes and bunched them together under her bed, making it look like there was someone lying in it; she opened her door to shout down the hall way to where her brothers and probably still Two-Bit and Steve were.

"I'm going sleep, night!" After a number of replies' she closed her door, turned off her light and started to climb out of her bedroom window.


	2. Chapter 2

Lori managed to climb out without making any noise or hurting herself in the process, but when she turned around she walked in to something hard, she looked up and met the ice cold blue eyes of Dallas Winston.

"Oh hey Dally! What are you doing around here?" She asked backing into the wall.

"Came a different way to your house, why are you climbing out your window?" He rose one eye-brow and took a drag of his cigarette.

"Oh I'm erm.. I was just testing to see how easy it would be to get out in case of a fire and the only escape route would be my room, pretty easy!" She lied, avoiding all eye contact with him.

"Don't lie to me kid. What are you really doing?" Lori pulled at face at the use of the word 'kid', she hated being called one especially by Dally, she never told anyone but before she got with Robby she use to have a crush on him, she got with Robby to try make him jealous but as far she knew he didn't give a rats arse.

"Ok, I had plans to go to a party but just before I walked out the door Steve called Darry out of the kitchen and told him and Darry sent me straight to my room."

"Is that it? What party is it?"

"Just a friend from school, I suppose you could say it's a birthday celebration!" She thought she wasn't really lying, she knew Robby from school and somewhere in the world it was someone's birthday. "Could you cover for me Dally? Please, I'll be gone 2 hours tops! Just keep them away from my room, please?"

"Fine but you owe me and no longer than 2 hours ok." He said throwing the cigarette bud to the floor and stamping it out.

"Thank you so much Dally!" And with that she ran off in the direction that she was meant to be meeting Robby.

Dallas shook his head as he walked around to the front of the house, 'that girl sure did grow up fast' He thought to himself remembering when she was only 10 and hated all guys, 'she's goin break a few hearts in the years to come, she sure is a looker now'. It was true, Lori sure wasn't ugly with her long golden hair, she had big grey eyes but far from dull, they were like how the moon looked when no clouds were about, she was small only about 5'4 and she was very curvy for a sixteen year old.

"Hey Dally" Two-bit greeted him as he walked through the front door.

"Hey, where is everyone?" Dallas looked around the room that only he and three other people were in.

"Soda is out with Sandy, Johnny is at the movies with Ponyboy and Lori is asleep. I'm off myself anyway, got work in the morning, Two-Bit wake me up if Ponyboy doesn't come back before 12." Darry said standing up and heading into his room after Two-Bit gave a reply.

"How come you guys aren't out doing anything? It's Friday night after all."

"Can't be arsed, there isn't anything really going on." Steve shrugged his shoulders.

"Oh yeah? I'm surprised that Lori is asleep at this time, would have thought she'd be bugging Darry let her go a party or some shit."

"She was, she went all teenage girly mood tantrum thing when Darry said no. Don't really blame him, wouldn't want my little sister going a party with Robby Ford, especially on the Tiber Street Tigers turf, hell I'd ban her from seeing him all together!" Two-Bit said, then took a chug of his beer.

"Whoa go back a sec there? She's going a party with Robby?" Dally asked confused, 'if that girl lied to me she's in for it'.

"On the Tiber Street Tigers turf."

"You sure it wasn't a friend's birthday bash from school?"

"Positive."

"You didn't think that she'd sneak out her window did ya?" Dally said lighting up another cig.

"What?" Both Steve and Two-Bit said.

"She snuck out, go check her bed."

"You caught her sneaking out?" Steve asked.

"And you didn't stop her?" Two-Bit added.

"Yup."

"I'm getting Darry." Steve said getting up but before he could reach the hall to Darry's room Dally grabbed his arm pulling him back.

"You're not going to tell Darry."

"Why not?" Steve shrugged himself out of Dally's hold and crossed his arms.

"Because Darry will go up there start a scene with Lori. We'll go now come on." Before waiting for the others reply he walked out the front door, Steve and Two-Bit looked at each other before following him.

"Sorry I'm late, I had to sneak out and then Dally caught me and I had to get him to cover for me." Lori explained as Robby drove to the other part of the east side.

"Just hope there's enough beer left." Robby said not looking at her.

"There's always enough beer, sometime I wonder how there's never a shortage of it." She laughed trying to lighten the mood, from the moment she got in the car she felt as though something was off with Robby that night.

"Have you been sleeping with other guys?" Robby asked suddenly.

"What? No! Why do you suddenly think that?" Lori asked honestly shocked at the question, Robby was the first guy she had sex with and that was only a few weeks before that party.

"Nothing, some guys were talking is all. Saying how they're surprised you aren't like that Sylvia girl who gets with Dally with how good looking you are. Just got me thinking."

"Robby, I wouldn't do that to you! I love you too much you know that." She said looking at him with sad eyes. He looked at her, kissed her then stopped the car.

"Come on, we're here." He said getting out.

Most of that night went fast, she lost Robby within 5 minutes of being there, 'No doubt he's probably pissed out of his head somewhere'. She decided to go look for him, over by a big tree she saw a guy who she thought she remembered talking to Robby once.

"Hey." She said walking up to the guy, he looked up and down her body before finally looking at her face. "Have you seen Robby anywhere?"

"I would totally fuck you." The guy slurred, he was obviously drunk.

"Erm thanks, look I need to find Robby so I can get home."

"Baby make my dreams come true, I want you!" The guy grabbed hold of her waist pulled her close to him trying to kiss her.

"Look I'm flattered really, but I have a boyfriend and I'm trying to find him!" She pushed the guy away and walked the other way.

"Lori!" She looked over in the direction of where the voice came from and saw Robby heading her way.

"Thank god I've been looking for you everywhere!" She said, although thinking is it really safe to let him drive her home, he stank of booze, obviously drinking far too much to be able drive.

"I saw you with that guy, all over him!" Robby shouted.

"What? I wasn't he was the one-" before she could see it coming it had already happened, the stinging on her cheek made her eyes water as well as the reality that Robby had just hit her, she moved her hand to her cheek and felt blood from where Robby's nail probably caught her.

"Baby I'm so sorry!" Robby apologized quickly realising what he had just done. Lori didn't answer but just stared at the floor holding her cheek, Robby took her head in his hands and made her look up at him, "Listen baby, I'm sorry I didn't mean it! I love you, I would never hurt you on purpose."

"It's ok, I forgive you." Lori said nodding her head still with watery eyes.

"Look, you can't tell anyone that this happened ok? If your brothers or their gang found out they'd kill me, if anyone asks what happened just say you drank too much and fell cutting your face on a rock that was on the floor ok?" Lori nodded. "Oh god, did you tell anyone you were coming here tonight?"

"No, they all think I'm in my room sleeping, why?" She asked confused.

"Three of the guys from your brother's gang are here." She turned around and saw Dally, Steve and Two-Bit getting out of a car and heading over towards where she was.

"Oh god I'm dead." She quickly wiped her eyes and turned around to face the three guys. "Hey guys, you came to party?" She said putting on a fake smile, hoping the guys wouldn't see through it.

"You are so lucky we didn't wake Darry up." Steve said angry.

"What happened to you cheek?" Two-Bit asked, being the first one out of the three to notice.

"This is going to sound really stupid but I had a little too much to drink and fell and cut my face on a rock." Lori laughed. Dally was shaking his head knowing that something else had happened and that she was lying to them.

* * *

**Hey guys! So I had a couple of reviews and story followers so thanks for that :) I hope this is okay... I think I may have used a few sayings and things from what I say(people in my country/city say? I don't know maybe, so please excuse that, if you don't understand anything just let me know and I'll try my best to explain it to you :) But yeah thanks for reading and remember don't forget to leave a review! For those of you who read my other story 'Why me' I should hopefully be uploading the next chapter of that tomorrow night :) **


	3. Chapter 3

The next morning Lori was in the bathroom trying to cover up the cut on her face and the bruise that had formed. She thought to herself that she was lucky the guys didn't tell any of her brothers, but she then had to think of an excuse as to why there was a cut and bruise on her face, she couldn't use the same excuse as she wasn't even meant to out of the house. She looked at the clock seeing that it was 9:00 am, Darry had to be out of the house in half an hour as did Soda and Ponyboy was already at school, just like Soda, Lori had dropped out of school to get a job in The Dingo, but she had promised Darry she would go back next year. She went and turned the shower on so it sounded like she was having one, she grabbed her Look magazine and sat down by the floor and started reading '_this should keep me entertained for half an hour_' she thought. Just as she turned onto the 5th page there was a banging on the bathroom door.

"Lori! Will you hurry up in there I need to pee!" Soda shouted. She moved away from the door and closer to the shower.

"I'm taking a shower soda! Hold it in!" She shouted back.

"I'm about to piss myself, have you got the shower curtain up?"

"Yeah why?" She asked confused.

"Then I'm coming in!" She panicked at this and jumped right in the shower, with all her clothes still on getting soaked. She heard the door open and then close shut again.

"So erm, are you and Darry setting on to work in a minuet then?" She asked trying to avoid the water, finding it impossible as the shower was tiny.

"Yep, we're off now, won't be back till around 6." She heard the toilet flush and the tap running.

"Oh okay, well I think I'm sleeping over at Angels house tonight so I won't see you." She said. Angel was Tim and Curley Shepard's sister, her name was really Angela but everyone liked to call her Angel.

"Well okay then, just make sure you don't get into any trouble with her. I'll see you tomorrow then."

"Bye Soda." She heard the bathroom door open and close again, and before fully stepping out the shower she peeked behind the curtain making sure that he had left. When she saw the he wasn't there she stepped out of the shower dripping wet; she listened to the byes that Soda, Darry and Steve were saying to probably Two-Bit and Dally. After she heard Darry's truck start up and drive away she stepped out of the bathroom, running into both Two-Bit and Dally. As soon as Two-Bit saw Lori he burst out in laughter.

"What you decided it was too cold have a shower naked and wore your clothes?"

"Soda thought I was having a shower when I wasn't and came into the bathroom to take a piss so I had to jump in the shower."

"Why?" Dally asked.

"Because I've been avoiding him, Pony and Darry so they won't see this cut and bruise on my face!"

"You're going see them later on though?"

"Nope, I'm going Angela's later. Now if you excuse I'm going to change into some dry clothes, re-do my make-up and pack my bag and then head over to Angels, bye guys."

**So this is an update yaay, may not be the longest but hey ho I stuck to what I said and updated on Saturday! **** Even though nothing really happened, review? **** Don't worry there should be more going on next chapter! So until next chapter byebye ! :D **


	4. Chapter 4

Two hours later Lori was standing at the front door of the Shepard's house, she was looking away from the door when it got opened.

"Hey Lori! Come in." Angela Shepard said opening it wider so Lori could step in. "Oh my God what happened to your face!" She screamed when Lori turned around.

"Keep it down would you! Is there anyone else in your house?"

"Just Tim, Why?" She asked closing the door behind Lori.

"Can we go up to your room? I'll tell you everything." The two girls walked up the Angels room and sat on her bed.

"Okay, now tell me, what happened?" Angela said.

"Well, I went this party last night and lost Robby, then I saw this guy who I thought knew Robby but the guy was drunk and tried kiss me so I pushed him off and walked away then Robby came up to me saying how he saw me all over that guy, when I was trying explain to him that the guy was all over me he smacked me." Lori explained.

"What! Robby hit you?" Angela said a little too loudly. What the two girls didn't know that Tim had come out of his bedroom just at the moment Angela said this, _'I never liked that Robby Ford kid, he deserves the poundings he's got, and going to get.' _He thought to himself. He walked downstairs and left the house and went to find Dallas Winston.

"Keep it down would you! If your brother hears he would sure as hell tell my brothers or anyone of the guys! They can't know, they would stop me from seeing him all together! They would hurt him so bad, then it would start shit all on the east side, and at this time we don't need greasers against each other as well as socs."

"But he hit you Lori!" Angela almost cried, the thought of her best friend being hit by someone she loved was horrible.

"But nothing Angela, he didn't mean to anyway. He was drunk; promise me Angel you won't tell anyone, if you do we are not friends anymore." Lori begged her best friend.

"Fine, I promise I won't tell anyone." Angela didn't like what she promised, but she didn't want to lose her best friend.

Tim walked in Bucks, the first place that popped into his head as to where Dally would be. He walked up to the bar where Buck himself was serving people.

"Alright Tim, how's it going?" Buck asked.

"Yeah good, hey is Dally here?"

"He'll be here in a minuet, he just went to the toilet."

"Tim, what are you doing here?" Dallas asked taking a seat next to Tim at the bar.

"Oh just getting a drink. Oh and there was something else as well, has Darry beaten up that Robby kid yet?" Tim took a chug of his beer. Dally looked at him confused.

"Thought you knew Darry better than that, he wouldn't beat up the kid just for dating his sister.. Even though some of us would do." Now it was Tim's turn to look confused.

"Yeah but if I found out one of Angels boyfriends had been smacking her about he'd be dead by now."

"What you talking about Shepard?" Dally asked, putting his drink down and turning to look fully at Tim.

"Don't ya know? Robby's hit Lori, that cut and bruise on her face. That's from him, heard her telling Angela myself."

"She at yours now?"

"Who? Lori? Yeah." Without giving Tim an answer he got up and headed straight to Shepard's house to find Lori.

"Okay so, Ricky Nelson or Bobby Rydell?" Angela asked Lori, which of the two famous guys she liked better, or in other terms would fuck.

"Hmm, that's a tough one. But I think it's got to be Ricky Nelson!" Lori laughed. Angela agreed and the two girls talked more about young teenage heartthrobs when they heard a banging on the front door.

"Ugh I best go get that, be right back!" Angel ran out the room and downstairs , answering the door to find Dallas Winston looking Angry.

"Tim isn't in Dally." She said going to close the door.

"I'm not looking for Tim, is Lori here?" He stopped the door from closing.

"Oh.. Yeah I'll go get her, come in?" She opened the door to let Dally in and ran back upstairs to get Lori.

"Hey, it's for you. Dallas Winston." Angel wiggled her eyebrows.

"Angel don't even think it. Dally is a friend!" Lori said getting off the bed and heading towards the door.

"Oh please I know you had a massive crush on him before you got with Robby!" Angel laughed as Lori flipped her off.

"Hey Dally, what are you doing here?" Lori walked into the Shepard's living room where Dally was sitting on their couch.

"Want to tell me how you got that cut on your face?" Dally asked, straight to the point.

"I told you, I fell and-" Before she could carry on he cut her off.

"Bullshit Lori! Tell me the truth, Robby did that to you didn't he?"

"What? No!" Lori lied.

"The truth."

"Okay? You want the truth! I got in a fight with some girl at the party" She made up, "it was one of Robby's ex-girlfriends. She still liked him, she got drunk and decided start something with me."

"Why did Tim tell me Robby did it then? He said he heard you telling Angela."

"Ever thought that Tim just wants cause trouble? There hasn't been much action going around town for while." Lori didn't like lying, but she knew Dally would tell her brothers, after beating Robby to a pulp, and then her brothers and the rest of the gang would. And it would ruin things between them both, Robby made Lori feel special, she didn't want one tiny mistake to ruin everything. "Honestly Dally, if Robby did beat me I'd tell you guys!"

"If I see one more mark on you or hear anything else about him smacking you around, he's dead." And with that Dally walked out of the Shepard's house. Lori thought to herself that if this was a cartoon he would have steam coming out of his ears.

**So because I was on a bit of a downer and had some shit going on I came to write some more! And it made me happy **** And I just wanted to say thank you to those of you who have reviewed and added to favourite and followed this story! So not loads and loads of action but more than the last one! I hope you liked it and hope you enjoy this early update! :D Remember to review guys and thanks again! :D **


	5. Chapter 5

**Okay so update **** It's not going be a very long one but its still an update! And I had no idea when the book was set and I couldn't find the year anywhere, but it just said it was set in the mid 60's so I made it be in like 1965 (If I've said any other date in earlier chapters please ignore that one) and I actually did some research as to what the hottest day was in 1965.**

That night Angel helped Lori to cover up the bruise with makeup and showed her how to do it, that's how Lori had managed to hide it from her brothers. But two weeks later she knew there was no way to hide the new bruises on her body. She never thought it would happen, she'd heard about girls getting smacked about by their boyfriends but she had never dreamed that it would happen to her. '_It's your own fault Lori, you know you shouldn't get him mad._' That's what she kept telling herself, every time she got punched, kicked, slapped… he always told her it was her own fault, he worked it into her mind and she believed it. She kept thinking about the night before, how she could have avoided the situation.

_Flashback_

"_So what were you doing at Angela's?" Robby asked me, we were sitting in his bedroom just talking._

"_Just the usual girly stuff, did make-up, nails, hair, we talked about movies, guys and music." _

"_Guys? What about guys?" Robby asked tensing up._

"_Just who we thought was attractive is all." Robby talks about girls being hot all the time, he won't mind._

"_Yeah, who then?" _

"_Well you know Dean Nelson? Angel thinks he is better looking than Todd Kershaw, but I think Todd is nicer than Dean." Before I could blink Robby had shoved me of the bed and onto the floor, on the way down I banged the bottom of my back on his bedside table. "Robby what's wrong?" I asked attempting to get off the floor but Robby roughly grabbed me by the tops of my arms and lifted me up slamming me into the wall._

"_Why would you say that? You know how I get about you and other guys Lori!" He shouted, at this point my arms felt like they were ready to drop off, I knew that in the morning they would be bruised. _

"_Robby, let go of me please your hurting me!"_

"_Yeah? Well you hurt me every time you talk about other guys, when you look at them, when you talk to them, when you smile at them. You're a slut!" He screamed in my face._

"_Robby please, I've told you a thousand times I would never cheat on you! Please" I felt tears begin to form in my eyes, he eventually let go of me and I sank to the floor. He rubbed the back of his neck and sat down next to me on the floor._

"_Yeah, I know. I just get jealous. It's just, it's your own fault, you shouldn't get me so angry. I hurt you cause I love you Lori, it'll teach you not to act like a slut okay? If you're a slut, people won't wanna talk to you will they, no one would like you anymore. Even your brothers and their gang would hate you."_

_End of flashback _

It was a hot day in Tulsa, one of the hottest that summer; that's why, when Lori walked out in a jumper and jeans the boys knew something was wrong.

"Lori, its 39 degrees Celsius, what the hell are you doing wearing a jumper and jeans for?" Darry asked.

"Oh, I felt a little chilly is all." Lori shrugged.

"Well okay then, whose team do you wanna be on then?" The gang had decided that they were going play football, and even though Lori was a girl, she had always nagged them to let her play when she was little and eventually they gave in letting her play, and she always did.

"Oh, no thanks. I'll just read this book." All the guys stopped and stared at her, they figured something was up with her, but didn't know what.

"you sure you're feeling okay Lori? You always play." Soda asked sitting down beside her.

"I'm fine okay! Seriously guys don't worry about me, you know what I think I'm just going go inside and read. Don't mind me guys!" She smiled and waved at the seven boys and made her way inside.

"Has anyone else noticed that she's been acting strange lately?" Soda asked once she was inside.

"Yeah she's gotten more moody and bitchy." Steve said.

"Think she's pregnant?" Darry instantly glared at Two-Bit for saying it.

"Don't even say that, she couldn't be pregnant. To get pregnant you would have to have sex." Darry said simply.

"Erm Darry, hate to break it to you but Lori isn't that innocent 10 year old girl who thought boys were 'icky'." Steve laughed.

"Yeah I know, she's going out with Robby Ford… Oh god! She's going out with Robby Ford, do ya think…?" Darry wondered.

"Darry, what do you think they do when they go over to his house?"

"Jesus Christ, I need to find out!" Darry said, making his way to the house but Soda stopped him.

"Darry! You can't just go and ask if she's pregnant. And if she is, no offense but she won't tell you, you guys aren't that close. I'll go, I'm closest to her." Soda said standing up of the grass and headed inside. Once he got to the living room he saw that she was on the sofa reading, like she said she would be. "Hey Lori!" He said with a friendly smile on his face sitting down next to her.

"Oh hey Soda, what are you doing in here?" She asked confused as to why he wasn't outside playing football with the others.

"Just thought I'd come keep you company." He smiled again.

"Oh.."

"Okay, there was something that I need to ask you. Well we were all wandering this… We noticed that you've been acting different and well, we wanted to know if you're pregnant."

"What!?" Lori asked shocked.

"Well even though we all hate the thought of it we know that you and Robby are having sex and if you are pregnant, you don't need worry about us kicking you out! Hell I'll be a great uncle, and we'll manage somehow!"

"Soda wait! I'm not pregnant." She laughed.

"Oh thank god for that!" Soda sat back feeling relieved.

"If I was pregnant I'd tell you all, there would be no way of hiding it from you all."

"Yeah I guess you're right." Soda laughed as well.

"What even put the idea in your head anyway?"

"Two-Bit."

"Well that boy! One of these days I'll get him back, you tell him to watch out!" She smiled a huge smile and laughed along with Sodapop.

_**Not one of the best chapters? Little sad at the beginning and sort of had a meaning? Not exactly a meaning but I thought that putting something out there like that would be good, I'm not sure how get this across but you hear about girls of all ages getting smacked around, especially young ones and people just think how stupid they are for staying with the guy if he's beating on you a lot, but at the start of this chapter I feel as though it sort of tells why young girls don't leave their guys, they somehow make it seem as if it's your own fault, or you could be scared to leave him, or you are scared that no one else will want to be with you and feel as though you need to be with someone. A lot of people don't seem to understand that and you see it on the news and hear what people say, these girls could be thinking 'everything he says is true, no one will like me, everyone will think it's my fault'. It's just not right.**_

_**But on a brighter note it ended happier, bit of a nice, awkward brother sister moment there **_

_**Please remember to leave a review, they make me happy :D and only take a minuet :P **_


	6. Chapter 6

**Hey guys! I know I'm a day late with updating but I was over my brother's house last night and his friends were over as well and it's just hard to write anything when they are hunting bears and making wrestling characters on the ps3… But there's an update now and I hope you like it =)**

"Darry I'm going The Dingo with Robby!" Lori shouted to her older brother as she was tying the laces on her converse.

"That such a good idea?" He asked walking into the living room wiping his hands on a tea towel as he had just been washing some dishes.

"Why wouldn't it be?" Lori became confused.

"Well you haven't been yourself just lately, since you've been seeing him more and more, you hardly spend time with the gang anymore." Darry gestured to 6 of the boys sitting the living room.

"In all fairness, I'm not really part of the gang am I. Honestly I only really have as much do as I do with Two-Bit, Johnny, Steve and Dally because of you, Soda and Ponyboy. No offense guys but if I wasn't their sister I'd probably never talk to you all." Lori said a little too harshly and walked out the door, slamming it behind her.

"What crawled up her ass and died." Steve pulled a face. The other guys all exchanged looks with each other and said,

"Period."

Lori walked into The Dingo and up to the booth where Robby was sitting.

"You're late." He said as she sat down on the seat opposite him.

"Only 5 minutes, it's not my fault any way. Darry was on my ass about how I'm not myself lately. They think somethings wrong with me." She shrugged. The waitress came and took her order, she was also eyeing up the purple bruising on Loris shoulder. Lori had started only worrying about hiding the bruising from her brothers and the gang; she stopped thinking about other people.

"The hell is wrong with you!" Robby said after the waitress walked away.

"What now?" Lori asked slightly frustrated. Everything she did just lately had been wrong all the time.

"Put your jacket back on or people are going start talking about that bruise on your shoulder!" Lori didn't say anything as the waitress came back with her diet coke and cheeseburger. Robby had already gotten his food, they sat quietly for an hour eating their food when Lori had become fed up of the atmosphere.

"Robby?"

"What?" He asked looking up, you could still hear the anger in his voice.

"Our dates always end up like this now, maybe if.. To get things back to normal, like they use to be, maybe you should take anger management..." Robby shot up from his seat and dragged Lori outside, earning a few looks as he did so but he didn't care, he dragged her out behind The Dingo and slammed her up against the wall.

"I don't fucking need anger management okay! Things are normal." He said shaking her.

"Robby, come on! You know they aren't. If you can't see it and if you can't sort yourself out… I can't keep lying to my brothers Robby; maybe it would be better for the both of us if we broke up…" Unlike the first time he hit her, she saw it coming. He punched her straight in the face, causing her nose to start gushing out blood.

"What the fuck are you doing!?" Both Lori's and Robby's eyes widened as they heard a voice behind them. Robby turned around slowly to see Tim Shepard, Curley Shepard and the rest of Tim's gang. "Wanna go ahead and answer my question Ford?" Two of the guys, Dean and Max, had grabbed Robby and shoved him up against the wall. Tim turned to Curley,

"Curley, go use the payphone up front and call the Curtis'. Pretty sure they would want to know what Robby has been doing to their sister." Tim said. Curley nodded and went out front to the payphone. "You okay Lori?" Tim mentally punched himself for asking such a dumb question, _'of course she's not okay'._

"Is it really necessary to get my brothers involved Tim?" Lori asked panicking; her brothers would ask her questions. They would never let her go out the house alone anymore, she felt the tears dripping from her eyes.

Back at the Curtis house everyone had left apart from Dallas. Darry, Soda and Steve had gone to work, Ponyboy, Johnny and Two-bit went to the movies. Dally was just about go through the front door when he heard the phone ringing.

"Yeah?" He answered.

"Get down to The Dingo now!" Curley Shepard said on the other end of the line before hanging up. Normally Dallas wouldn't do what the kid would say but he sounded desperate, and Lori was down at The Dingo.

"Come on Shepard, it wasn't what it looked like!" Robby was begging Tim not to kick the shit out of him.

"Wasn't what it looked like? I saw you punch her square in the face. Don't know how you mom raised you like but I got raised to never lay a hand on a girl, and anyone who does don't deserve to live." Tim punched Robby in the face, like Robby did to Lori. "Not so nice is it!"

"Tim, come one don't do anything stupid. If you kill him you'll get put in for life, imagine what that would do to Angela and Curley!" Lori shouted at him still crying, trying to stop her nose from bleeding.

"Don't worry I aint going kill him. But when everyone is through with him, he aint going want to live anymore."

"What the fuck is happening down here?" Tim smiled at that voice, Robby's eyes widened even more and Lori wished that she could just stop herself from crying and disappear.

"Dallas. Glad you're here."

**DA DA DAAA! It's longer :P And its out! Ooh I was so tempted to write more but I've got my other story to update yet as well! So you will have to wait! **** I hope you liked it and don't forget to leave a review! They do make me happy :D **

**Thanks for reading!**

**Holly xxx**


	7. Chapter 7

**It's Saturday (ok maybe not exactly!) and you know what that means? UPDATEE YEAHH xD Sorry about that ahaa.. It would have been put up sooner but I got distracted, My little pony season 3 is now on youtube! YEAHH!**

"Does someone want to tell me what's going on then? Why is Lori's face fucked up?" Dally was getting closer and closer to Robby, still pinned up by the wall after Tim had punched him.

"Oh yeah thanks Dally." Lori rolled her eyes.

"Saw our pal Robby here punch Lori in the face." Tim said, "Told you he'd been smacking her around. Who knows how long he's been hitting her for."

"This true Ford?" Dally was standing right in front of Robby. Robby avoided looking Dally in the eyes. "Don't ignore me kid! Let go of him." He told Dean and Max who were still holding him. "Answer me, have you been smacking her about?" Robby still didn't answer only looked at Dally with a smug look on his face. This annoyed Dally and he punched Robby in the stomach, Robby automatically bent over to hold his stomach only to be kneed in the face by Dallas.

"Aw fuck!" Robby shouted, blood gushing from his nose just like Lori's but only his was worse. Dallas pinned Robby up against the wall holding him by his throat,

"Lori is like a little sister to me. You don't mess with my family Ford. You're lucky you aint dead." Lori felt her heart sink a little, it's not like she wanted be with Dally or anything but she had always hoped that he had liked her back.

"Dally, leave it now! Please!" Lori begged, knowing it wouldn't be long until the cops showed up. "Tim, is Angela home?"

"Yeah, well she was when I left this morning anyway." Tim answered lighting up a cigarette.

"Okay, Dally will you drive me there please?" Dally nodded his head and walked away from Robby, Lori followed.

"Who's car is this?" She asked seeing him climbing into a Thunderbird.

"Bucks, he's let me borrow it for a bit." Lori nodded and climbed in the car. "Hey did you lose your ring?" She asked noticing the class ring he wore was gone.

"No, me and Sylvia are back together" Lori made an 'o' shape with her mouth and they were both silent until Dally pulled up by the Shepard's house.

"You don't need wait for me, I'll be a few hours so I'll call Darry or someone to pick me up."

"Ok bye." Lori watched Dallas drive off and then knocked on the door.

"Oh my god what happened!" Angela screamed when she opened the door. It's not like the pain had gone away, but Lori forgot that her nose had been bleeding so she probably had blood all on her face and looked a mess.

"Robby hit me."

"Come in." Angela dragged her best friend into the living room. "I'm sorry but I can't not say anything anymore! I can't just sit by and let him hurt you anymore! Things need to be ended with him, I'm going tell your gang. You might not listen to me about it but at least I know they'll make you listen!"

"Angela-" Lori began but got cut off.

"No! I'm not going let you guilt trip me into not telling them, I know you said that if I told anyone we won't be friends anymore but I'm not just going sit by and let him hurt you, a friend wouldn't do that and if you won't talk to me anymore after I tell them then fair enough but-"

"Angela!" Lori screamed interrupting Angela's rant, "Things are over with Robby. Your brother and his gang saw Robby punch me… They called Dallas and obviously they are going to tell my brothers and the rest of the gang."

"Oh thank god!" Angela enveloped Lori in a hug, "I felt so bad all that time! I hadn't heard of you in so long, I was getting so worried! I am such a bad friend."

"Angela it's ok! Seriously I was being a bitch saying that if you told anyone we would be friends anymore." Angela smiled.

"Let's get you cleaned up!" She took Lori into the kitchen and did exactly that. The two girls spoke for hours until Darry came to pick Lori up, Dally had told him where she was and he also told him everything that happened down at The Dingo, which meant him explaining everything about Robby beating on Lori. Darry had almost gone out the house to find Robby and beat the tar outta him, but he didn't want risk getting caught and having Soda, Lori and Pony be put in care, the social certainly wouldn't like it if he beat up some 16 year old kid. But of course that didn't stop the rest of the gang going out and finding him.

For the next three weeks Lori was never on her own, except for when she was in bed and in the bathroom. She would have to get a ride to school with either Two-Bit or Steve and they both took turns waiting for her after class. She had only seen Robby once since the incident at The Dingo, it was in school, he was with one of his friends from the Tiber Street Tigers and she was with Steve, but the look that Robby gave her was far from a friendly one, it made her want to go hide. At the beginning of it all, she felt like she was someone important it felt like she had body guards, but it soon became annoying as she hardly had any alone time and hardly saw any of her girlfriends.

It was Saturday night and she had had enough of it all, it was Darry's turn to babysit her, seeing as he had Saturdays off.

"Darry?"

"Yeah Lori?"

"I was wondering, if I could go out tonight? Just to the Nightly Double with Angela and some friends from school." Lori asked.

"I don't know.."

"Oh please Darry, I haven't had much proper time with my friends! Please? I promise I'll come straight back after the films are finished!" Darry thought about it for a moment before replying,

"Fine. Do you want a lift?"

"Thank you Darry! You're the best, and yes please." Darry nodded and grabbed his keys of the side table. When they arrived at The Nightly Double, Lori told him that her friends were already inside, so she said bye and paid to go in. Now you might have already guessed but Lori hadn't actually made plans to go and meet with any of her friends, she had just wanted some alone time and figured she'd go watch a movie, and she knew none of the other guys would be here as Ponyboy was at the inside movie theatre with Johnny, Soda and Steve were on a double date with Sandy and Evie, Two-Bit was at some part somewhere and Dally was probably at Bucks with Sylvia. She picked a seat near the back, away from the concession stand where she knew she wouldn't be interrupted.

Saturday night wasn't a great night for Steve; his double date had ended up with him being single. It didn't bother him, after all it was him who ended it with Evie, she was always too clingy and paranoid that he was constantly checking out other girls. He had finally had enough and broke up with her, she went home crying and he left and decided to catch a movie at The Nightly Double. He entered through a small hole at the back, away from the concession stand and away from other people, usually an isolated area but he saw one girl sitting in a seat on her own watching the movie. As he got closer he realised that the girl was Lori.

"Lori?" He had made her jump, spilling popcorn everywhere. "Sorry didn't mean make you jump." He said sitting down next to her.

"Steve, what are you doing here?" She asked shocked that he was there and a little upset that he was probably going take her back home.

"I should ask you the same thing. Thought you should be back at yours with Darry?"

"I told him that I was meeting some friends from school here, I persuaded him to let me come." Steve looked around him, looking for the friends that Lori was talking about.

"I don't see anyone around that you know."

"That's because I'm not meeting anyone here. I just wanted be alone, having you guys constantly around me is just… Annoying. Sorry." She sighed.

"It's ok, it's not all too great for us either, no offense but we do have better things than looking after you." He laughed.

"Sorry about that.."

"It's ok." He said lounging back in the seat.

"What are you doing?" Lori asked confused, she thought he would have left if he didn't want to be looking after her.

"What do you mean?"

"I thought you didn't want to 'look after' me. You don't have to stay you know." Steve laughed,

"I know, I never said I didn't want to look after you... And I'm not just going leave you here on your own now am I? I wouldn't be right." He smiled at her and she returned it, then they both turned their attention back to the movie. Steve looked at her from the corner of his eyes, he wondered how many guys would have tried it on with her if they came sit back here and he hadn't of been there… _'If she wasn't Soda's sister I definitely would.' _

**So… Lori and Steve? ;) Let me know what you think! And btw I after I looked back over this I saw that I wrote Fags instead of Cigarettes… Fags are basically Cigs where I come from but I know that some of you might night confused if I use the word fag and it just wasn't used back then anyway… **

**Anyway I hope you enjoyed that! Just on 4 pages there wow! It's a long one :P Remember to review as they do make me happy **** I want to thank everyone who has reviewed/followed/favourite this story! I try to reply to all your reviews, but some people leave them on anon and I can't reply so Thanks again! **

**And I have twitter to anyone who's on there, you can follow me HollyKaySmith for news on the story progression or whatever as I will start posting when I'm working on Being a Curtis Girl or why me or if I stupidly decide to start another story again! And I will follow you back! **

**Thanks for reading **

**Holly xxx**


	8. Chapter 8

**So it's that time of the week again that (hopefully) you all look forward to, ITS SATUDAY! And I just got in from bowling **** I came 3****rd****! Thank you all for reviewing last chapter **** It was interesting to see what some of you thought about Lori and Steve :L But we shall see how things pan out!**

"Lori, Lori wake up!" Steve shook Lori. Somewhere through the movie Lori had fallen asleep. 

"Huh? Is the movie over?" She asked groggily.

"Yeah you fell asleep."

"Oh ok. Oh my god what time is it?" Lori shouted, panicking.

"Erm, it's about half two I think."

"You're joking! Oh my god I said to Darry I'd be home at half 12, school is back on tomorrow, Today? I don't know… He's going kill me! I'll see you at school Steve." She got up and ran out of The Nightly Double as Steve said his goodbye… He sat in his seat and rubbed his hands over his face, he didn't know how he stayed awake himself. He thought to himself how much trouble Lori is going to be in when she got home, Darry, Soda and Ponyboy must be worried sick… Then another thought came to him, she didn't say she was getting picked up and she doesn't drive. With this thought he legged it out of the drive in and started looking through the crowd of people that were down the road, he tried look to see if he could see her golden hair but there were a few girls with very similar hair colouring.

"Lori!" He shouted searching through the crowd. "Fuck." He said when there was no answer and ran in the opposite direction, towards The Dingo where he left his car. Luckily it was only 5 minutes away. When he got in his car he sped down the road that would usually lead to the Curtis house, he slowed down as he got deeper into the neighbourhood, what he saw though made him panic. There was a red mustang driving slowly down the road, almost as if they were trailing someone; he over took them quickly and further down the road he saw a smallish figure with Golden hair, he sped up to the figure and pulled up by her. "Get in the car now!"

"Steve?" Lori asked confused.

"Get in!" He said angrily. Lori followed this command and got in the car.

"What's up?"

"What's up? Really? Are you fucking stupid or something?" Steve shouted as he sped down the road.

"What are you talking about?" Lori said, slightly taken aback from how Steve was acting.

"Walking back! If you needed a ride you should have just asked. Anything could have happened and if something did happen and Darry and Soda found out I was with you earlier that night they'd kill me! I suppose you didn't see them Socs trailing your ass did you!?"

"What? There were Socs?" Lori asking panicky, looking in the rear view mirror.

"Yeah, what do you suppose would have happened to you if I didn't show up huh?" Steve Snapped. Lori didn't reply, she felt her eyes start to water and was scared that if she spoke she'd start crying, so she just looked straight ahead. Steve looked across to her and cursed under his breath when he saw her eyes looked watery. "Awh come on Lori, don't go crying on me now. I'm sorry okay, it's just who knows what could have happened to ya. I'd feel real awful if something did happen. You should have just asked for a ride."

"I'm sorry. I know I should of but I figured you would have had plans with Evie, and wanted get to her as soon as possible…" Lori said going red. Steve chuckled,

"Me and Evie broke up. That's why I was at the drive in in the first place."

"Oh, I'm sorry to hear that."

"Nah it's okay, was getting fed up of her to be honest. Anyway, we're here." Steve said nodding his head to the Curtis house.

"Oh right, well erm thanks for the ride." Lori said, looking out the window to her house.

"You know, for you to go in your house you have to get out of the car." Steve laughed.

"I know… Darry's going be in there, he's going be real angry." She was nodding her head, not really talking to Steve but just herself.

"You've got to face him sometime."

"Not if I go to Mexico.." She said, a little too seriously.

"And have you got enough money on you to go to Mexico?" Steve laughed.

"No."

"Then I think it's best for you to go home."

"You're right. Okay, thanks again. Bye." She got out the car and slowly walked up to the door. As soon as she stepped inside the shouting begun.

"Where the hell have you been?" Darry shot up from his chair.

"I feel asleep, I'm sorry."

"No, not good enough. You were supposed to be home ages ago."

"Darry I can't help it if I feel asleep." Lori said taking her jacket off.

"If you felt tired you should have come home!" Darry's face was red with anger at that very moment, his head looked like it was about to explode.

"Well I didn't want to come home! I've had enough of being at home being watched 24/7! It's suffocating me!" Lori shouted back at Darry, something she didn't usually do.

"Stop being such a spoilt brat and get out of my sight, I can't stand looking at you at the moment!" Lori didn't know what to say to that, Darry had never been that horrible to her before. She ran to her room feeling the tears fall down her cheeks. After 5 minutes she heard her door open and close again and felt another person's weight sit down on her bed.

"Hey Ponyboy." She sat up wiping her eyes.

"Hey."

"What's up?" She asked, wondering what brought her little to her bedroom at that time in the night.

"I came see if you're okay." He said rising his eyebrows.

"I'm okay." She smiled a little bit but still felt her eyes water.

"Darry can be a real jerk at times, don't worry though. He'll cool down eventually."

"Thanks Pony."

"It's okay; just don't let him get to ya. I bet you half the things he says to you he doesn't actually mean." Ponyboy knew how Lori was feeling at that exact moment, he had Darry shouting at him almost all the time for little things, it wasn't a nice feeling. Lori and Pony fell asleep together talking. They may not have spent an awful lot of time together a lot but they were very close, Lori couldn't imagine life without him, heck she couldn't imagine life without any of her brothers, perhaps maybe Darry, but if Darry wasn't there, there would be no one to keep the gang under control, there would be no one to force Lori get up for school and the most important thing they wouldn't all be living as a family. And life without Sodapop sure would be boring, and more miserable, he can make anyone smile. Lori loved all her brothers equally, if anything were to happen to any of them she reckons she would die.

**Ok there we go chapter number 8! I'm not particully happy with this chapter.. I don't know its just not as great as it could be! But anyway don't forget to review **

**And also remember to follow me on Twitter HollyKaySmith **

**And I know have gone into the world of Tumblr… It's uber addicting! So follow me on there so just search holsiepops **** where I post all things outsiders! (And more obviously but mostly outsiders!) **

**Talk to you next Saturday**

**Holly! **** xxx**


	9. Chapter 9

The next morning Lori got woken up by a ray of sun shining through into her room through a tiny gap in her curtain, she looked over to Ponyboy to see that he was still asleep. She looked at the clock on her side table and saw that it was 6:00am; she slowly got out of bed and went into the kitchen to do herself some toast then went back to her room and got a fresh set of clothes and underwear, then headed to the bathroom and took a shower and brushed her teeth. After drying her hair and doing her makeup she put on her dark blue jeans, a black boob tube and her leather jacket and also her old worn converse. She left the bathroom and went into the living room to grab her bag which had a few bits and bobs such as makeup and a comb. She looked at the clock seeing that an hour went by and she still had a bit of time before she had to go school, she sat down on the sofa and watched Micky Mouse. It wasn't long until Darry had woken up and walked into the kitchen.

"Morning." Lori said, but there was no reply from Darry. "Fine, be like that." She mumbled under her breath. After a while she couldn't take the silence anymore and left the house to go school, she didn't care if she was going to be early.

"Morning Darry." Ponyboy said as he wandered into the kitchen and made himself some breakfast. He was already changed and ready to go for school.

"Morning Pony, is Soda awake?" He said, taking a sip from his coffee mug.

"Yeah, he's in the shower." Darry nodded, "Where's Lori?"

"Gone school."

"Already?" Pony asked confused.

"Yup." The front door opened and Two-Bit, Steve and Johnny walked in.

"You ready kid?" Steve asked.

"Yeah." Ponyboy grabbed the piece of toast he just finished buttering and stuffed it in his mouth, "bye Darry. Bye Soda!" He shouted.

"Where's your sister?" Steve asked Pony as they got into Steve's car.

"In school, her and Darry had a fight last night and I guess she didn't want to see him this morning." He said.

"Oh right."

At the school Lori was sitting at some empty tables at the back of the school, where the greasers hang out. She felt someone sit down next to her, she looked up expecting to see one of the guys from the gang but instead she saw Robby. Instantly she scooted away from him, feeling fear rise up within her. She looked around and saw nobody, _'Of course, which greasers are actually going to in school on time'. _ She thought to herself, a few of them did get there on time but they didn't hang out at the back, instead they stayed in the halls causing trouble with Socs, the back of the school was only used by them at dinner and any breaks.

"This is your fault." Robby said with anger in his voice. Lori tried to get up and leave but Robby grabbed her wrist and tugged her back down. She noticed that on his face were new bruises and a cut near his eye. "Lawson beat me up!" Dale Lawson was the leader of the Tiber Street Tigers.

"They kicked you out of the gang?" Lori said, her eyes growing wide and started to get even more scared.

"No, but he threatened to. Said that if I ever step outta line again that I'm gone. You know how many people have pounded on me cause of you? And not even all of ya brothers gang have come for me yet. If I get beaten up one more time…" He left it at that before walking off. Lori felt tears prick at her eyes and felt pain in her wrist where he had grabbed her tightly.

"Lori!" She quickly wiped her eyes as she heard people approach her. She knew who it was this time; she recognised Two-Bit's voice. She looked up and saw Two-Bit and Steve walking towards her.

"Hey guys." She said quietly as they sat down by her.

"What's up with you?" Steve asked, noticing her eyes were red.

"Nothing." She tried to fake a smile but Steve didn't buy it.

"Aw shoot Lori! If it's something to do with that argument with Darry don't sweat it! Things will be back to normal again soon." Two-Bit smiled and ruffled her hair. "Anyway, I'm heading off to class. Mrs Bates said the day I get to class early will be the day she retires; let's hope she's true to her word!" Two-Bit laughed then ran off into the school.

"So where's Pony-Boy?" Lori asked, avoiding any subject that involved Darry or Robby.

"Gone his teacher about some math homework. So you going tell me what's up?" Lori raised her eyebrows at him. "Look, I know we've never been best buddies or anything, but come on, let me try help ya." Lori sighed.

"Darry wouldn't talk to me this morning. It's like I wasn't even there, he's never shouted at me like he did last night and he's never ignored me.

"Don't sweat it doll, he'll come around! I guess it's just a shock for him that it was you going home late and not Ponyboy, and you shouted back at him." Steve smiled and nudged her but then noticed a red mark around her wrist; it looked like someone had grabbed her. "What happened?" He asked, pointing to her wrist. Lori tried to quickly think of something but came up with nothing.

"Oh, I don't know. It just erm, came from nowhere." She mentally smacked herself in the face for coming up with such an awful lie. Steve knew she was lying but she was already upset about Darry so he figured he would get it out of her later. "Come on lets go to class." They stood up and entered the school building. Further down the hall way, on the second floor they heard a commotion, and then saw a bunch of students all gathered around cheering. "Let's go see what's going on!" Steve dragged Lori to the front of the crowd. There they found Two-Bit pinning Robby up against a locker and punching him repeatedly in the stomach. Robby quickly glanced up and shot Lori a look, she quickly thought of the hanging threat that he left her with. Again, an instant fear hit her and she ran through the crowd and down the hall. She could hear Steve calling her and possible following her but she didn't stop and she ran right into the girls toilets; she went into one of the cubicles and started crying, wondering when exactly did her life start going downhill and tried to remember a time when things were actually good for her.

"Lori! Lori come out! What's wrong with you?" Steve said on the opposite side of the girls toilets, he obviously couldn't go in but at that moment he was starting to debate with himself whether he should or not, but then he saw Angela Shepard walking towards him with a concerned look on her face.

"Is she in there?" She asked as she reached him.

"Yeah, I don't know what's up with her. She just saw Robby and Two-Bit fighting froze for a minute and just ran." He said rubbing the back of his neck.

"Okay, I'll go talk to her. You go make sure that Two-Bit isn't killing Robby, as much as we'd all like that, we don't want Two-Bit go prison for life do we." Steve nodded and walked away in the direction of the fight. Angela entered the girl's toilets and heard sniffles coming from the middle cubicle.

"Lori? It's Angel, come on out or I'm coming in!" A few seconds past before Lori walked out of the stall. "What's wrong?"

"You know I was scared of telling my brothers and the gang about Robby. But when I did tell them I thought it was the best thing to do, everything would be better and normal again!" Lori started crying.

"But babe, it is normal again! Robby can't hurt you anymore." Angel said rubbing her arm in a comforting way.

"Yes. Yes he can! He came speak to me this morning when I was alone, he grabbed my wrist that's how there's slight bruising on it. He threatened me this morning, he didn't say exactly what he would do but it was the tone of his voice! He's going hurt me again Angel." Angel hugged her.

"Robby isn't going to do anything to you! Your brothers and the gang won't let him, and neither will I!"

"You guys aren't going to be with me all the time! There's going to be one point where I'm alone and he's going to get me Angel."

"Lori think about it, the amount of times he's been beaten up by guys in this neighbourhood cause' of what he did to you, do you really think he's going try anything else? They'd kill him!"

"I guess you're right." Lori sniffled, grabbed a load of toilet role and wiping her eyes.

"I'm Angela Shepard. I'm always right." She laughed. "Eww, look at you. You look hideous! Let's get all this black shit of your face." They both laughed.

"Okay so what happened?" Steve asked in the school parking lot, him and Two-Bit were sitting on the hood of his car smoking some weed.

"The jerk had a stupid smile on his face talking to one of his buddies, I'm pretty sure he mentioned Lori's name." Two-Bit said taking a drag.

"Do you think it was the best idea?"

"The dick deserves everything he gets."

"Yeah, but after everything had just calmed down? I don't know man, I'd like to smash his face in again n' everything but maybe it would have just bin' best to leave it. Lori got pretty upset when she saw you two fighting."

"I guess, too late now though. Hey where is Lori anyway?" Two-Bit asked, wondering where she had gone off to.

"Last I know she was with Angela Shepard in the girls toilets."

"Huh. Aw man we're late for class; I guess Mrs Bates isn't going retire! Damn Robby distracted me." Steve laughed and the two boys slowly made their way to class.

* * *

**So there is chapter 9! I hope you enjoyed it! :) It seems much longer on word! It's just over 3 and a half pages :)  
****Thank you for all your reviews! They mean a lot and do make me very happy! =) so remember to review this chapter and let me know what you think!**

**See you guys next Saturday**

**Holly xxx**


	10. Chapter 10

It was the end of the day and Lori was sitting at the back of her English class, usually she would be with Johnny but she guessed he hadn't gone school as she hadn't seen him all day. The 60 minute lesson went by rather quickly; she walked out to the front of the school where she found Two-Bit, Steve and Ponyboy waiting for her.

"Hi guys." She smiled happily at them. Two-Bit raised an eyebrow.

"Stevie I thought you said that she was upset!"

"She was when I last saw her!" Steve raised his arms in defence.

"I was… But I'm okay now." She smiled again.

"You know what, that's nice to see! It seems like such a long time since I saw you smile!" Two-Bit smiled like a Cheshire cat wrapping his arm around Lori's shoulders.

"It feels good."

"Will you two get in the car already!" Steve honked the horn. The pair laughed and climbed into Steve's car. "Aw shit." Steve said smacking the steering wheel.

"What?" Lori asked leaning in the front.

"Ran out of fuel. It was on low this morning but I figured it would last till I go the DX tonight!"

"You're kidding right?" She said frowning.

"Looks like we gotta walk." Everyone moaned as they got out the car and began walking. After walking for a while they neared the lot, Lori spotted something of the ground.

"Hey isn't that Johnny's jacket?"

"Yeah it is." Steve said picking it up.

"Do you think he left it here?" Ponyboy said.

"I don't know maybe he-" But before she could carry on she noticed something on the collar. "Oh my god is that blood?" Her eyes widened and then all of a sudden they heard a strange moaning noise, as if someone was in pain. They looked around then Two-Bit spotted a figure lying on the floor curled in a ball. The four of them ran over to the figure and saw that it was Johnny. He had received a real bad beating,

"Oh my god." Pony was the first to speak.

"Hey Johnny, everything's going be okay. You're going to be fine!" Steve said hovering above Johnny, not knowing what to do. As though they could sense something was wrong, Sodapop, Darry and Dallas turned up and stood around us. Dallas looked like he was ready to kill someone.

"Who did this?" Soda asked kneeling down next to Johnny.

"Who do you think?" Two-Bit said, even he had a serious, angry look on his face.

"Fucking Socs. They're going pay." Dally said.

"Come on; let's take you to the hospital." Darry gently picked Johnny up and carried him to his truck, Ponyboy and Soda followed him. "Can one of you guys take Lori home?"

"Why can't I come with you?" She asked.

"Because I don't want you to be at the hospital, plus we're probably going be there late."

"But Ponyboy is going and he's younger than me!"

"Johnny is Pony's best friend." Darry got in the car and drove off.

"Come on Lori, you can see Johnny tomorrow!" Two-Bit said swinging him arm around Lori's shoulders as they started walking. "You coming Dal?"

"No, I've got something I need to do." He said and then walked off in the opposite direction.

"What do you think he's going to do?" Lori asked looking between Two-Bit and Steve.

"Knowing our pal Dallas, he's probably going go around and kick the shit out of every Soc he sees until he finds the ones who did that to Johnny." Two-Bit said and Steve just nodded agreeing.

**Okay I know this chapter wasn't very long and sort of sucked! But I accidently turned my computer off without saving what I already wrote and word didn't recover it so I've just had to quickly write this for you and I couldn't write any more as I'm sort of bust at the moment, but good news! **

**The update date may be moved towards sorta like the middle of the week once I get more free time which will hopefully be soon… Or another option for you guys is, there could be 2 updates in a week, but the chapters wouldn't be very long, probably only a little longer than this one. So let me know what you want doing and we'll see what happens **

**Even though it wasn't one of the best chapters please remember to leave a review **** They do make me happy and do encourage me to continue this story! **

**Happy 1****st**** December Hope you all enjoyed the chocolate out of your advent calendar! (do other countries do that as well?)**

**MERRY CHRISTMAS**

**Holly! xxx**


	11. Chapter 11

It was a couple of weeks after Johnny's jumping; Dallas had gotten arrested the following day. Hardly any of them walked alone.

"Darry I'm off to Angela's for the night!" Lori said to her older brother as she was tying the laces on her worn out converse.

"How are you getting there?" He asked, looking up from his newspaper.

"I'm going walk."

"Not on ya own you aint." Darry said about to stand up but Two-Bit butted in.

"Don't worry Darry, I'll walk with her. I was going head that way anyway!" Lori smiled at Two-Bit and we left the house.

"Thanks for walking me Two-Bit"

"No problem Lori! Things with you and Darry still not good?" He asked slinging his arm over her shoulder.

"They've gotten better; he's talking to me now. But it's still not great, there's always just awkwardness whenever I'm alone with him."

"Don't worry, it'll go back to normal!"

"I hope so!"

"So what you going Angela's for then?" Two-Bit asked raising his eyebrow.

"She called me up earlier asking if I could stay tonight." Two-Bit nodded and said bye as they got arrived outside of Angela's. Lori walked up the steps and knocked on.

"Hey, come in." Angela said leaving the door open for Lori to walk in.

"What's wrong?" Lori could tell something was wrong with her friend.

"Ask me where my family is?" She replied with tears almost leaking from her eyes, which was a shock for Lori to see as Angela Shepard hardly ever cried in front of anyone, including Lori herself.

"Where are your family?" Lori asked confused.

"Curly's in the reformatory!"

"What why?"

"He tried to rob a liquor store! I mean, why would he do that Lori? If he wanted something he could have just asked Tim. Tim… I bet that's why he did it! He always wanted Tim to approve of him, he wanted to be just like Tim!"

"But Tim was happy with him anyway wasn't he?"

"Yeah, but Curly didn't see it. Oh and guess where Tim is anyway! He's out probably doing something illegal as always, you know when we found out Curly got sent away, Tim didn't even care! His words were literally 'good for him'!" Tears were now streaming down Angela's face.

"Angela" Lori started but she didn't know how to finish.

"And my mum? She's gone out to get drunk and hook up with some guy! And my dad, he's fucked off somewhere again and we're probably not going see him in another 2 months!" Angela calmed herself down before carrying on. "I'm sorry Lori, I know you have problems which are way worse than mine but, I just need get it all of my chest, it would be nice for someone to listen to my problems for once instead of me listening to everyone else's."

"Oh Angel!" Lori moved and hugged Angela. "You should know you can come to me whenever you need to talk! I'm sorry for piling all my problems on you, but we're best friends! You can come to me whenever you have a problem!"

"Thanks Lori." Angela smiled and wiped her eyes.

**Ok I'm sorry! Please don't hate me, I know I'm two days late and honestly I don't have an excuse! It's just me being lazy, Saturday The Mcfly show was on and the new episode of my little pony xD And I told myself I would do it on Sunday.. I don't know what happened, but I attempted a mod look! I promise I'm going try to update more**

**I realise that I haven't done a disclaimer thingy so here we go : I do not own The Outsiders, the only thing I do own is Lori and any other characters that you are not familiar with, such as Robby! **

**Even though it wasn't a great chapter please remember to review **** I thought it would be nice to show how Angela may possibly be feeling with Curly going away and how her home life is. Seeing through tough on Angel! **

**If you would like you can follow me on Tumblr ;) My name is holsiepops and the blog is called That Girl **

**Thanks for reading!**

**Holly xxx**


	12. Chapter 12

Two weeks later Lori was walking down the school halls, she was the last person in school who wasn't in detention as she decided to stay behind to study. She told Darry that she would get the buss back, but she thought that it was too nice of a day to sit in some smelly bus when she could walk, she figured plenty of people would be out so she didn't need worry about Socs; on the way back she decided to stop by the movie house as she remembered Pony say he was going to go watch some film, The Hustler, she thought it was, it definitely had Paul Newman in it. As she got to the movie house it looked like that film had already ended so she carried on walking hoping to catch up with Ponyboy. After a little bit of walking, she froze as she rounded a corner; parked up she saw a red Corvair and about 5 Socs holding someone down, after a few moments she realised it was Ponyboy. She wanted to go help him but she was frozen in fear, she hid behind a tree on the other side of the street, hearing her brother scream out for Soda and Darry. She would have helped him, but they would hurt her as well, it didn't matter that she was a girl, it didn't stop Robby and it definitely wouldn't stop the Socs from hurting her and doing something else. She soon heard another car pull up and she thought that it was more Socs; she took a peak from behind the tree and saw that it was the gang. She got up while the boys were occupied trying to get the Socs out of the car and ran home a different way to what they came.

Lori was sitting on the couch when she heard her brothers and the gang outside, she got up and went to them.

"I didn't know you were out of the cooler yet Dally." Ponyboy said. Lori looked up and saw that it was true, Dally was standing right there lighting a cigarette.

"Good behaviour. Got off Early." He handed the cigarette to Johnny. Lori would have laughed if she wasn't feeling so bad, '_since when did Dallas Winston ever behave?' _she thought.

"Nice lookin' bruise you got there, kid." Two-Bit said. Ponyboy instantly touched his cheek.

"Really?" Two-Bit nodded.

"Nice cut too. Makes you look tough." Lori widened her eyes, she never realised that they had cut him. This made her feel even worse. She let out a sort of choked sob and went to the back yard and sat down on the porch.

"I'm going to check on her." Sodapop said, then ran through the house after his little sister. As he got to the back porch he saw her sitting down, he couldn't make out if she was crying but she had her head in her hands. "Hey, what's up?" He asked sitting down next to her.

"It's all my fault Soda!" Lori said looking up.

"What are you talking about?" He asked with a confused look on his face.

"I saw Ponyboy get jumped and I didn't do anything! I just stood there."

"But you weren't there when we arrived" He said even more confused.

"I was on the other side of the road hiding behind a tree! I watched them hurt him and I didn't do anything. I was scared!" She cried.

"Lori, it's not your fault! If you had tried to help Ponyboy out you would have gotten hurt as well! No one would blame you for not helping him; no one would have expected you to after what happened with Robby." Lori nodded and wiped her eyes. "Come here!" Soda pulled her for a hug.

"Thanks Soda, I think I'm going to go take a nap. Wake me up in an hour?"

"Sure." Soda smiled as she went inside the house. He sighed and thought about how life has just gotten bad just within a few months.

"Hey, what was up with her then?" Steve asked sitting down next to his best friend.

"She thought Ponyboy being jumped was her fault."

"How the hell did she figure that out?" He asked.

"She was there when it happened." Steve tensed; the worst came to mind thinking that something had happened to her as well.

"They didn't do anything to her did they?"

"No, she was hiding behind a tree. She thinks that if she had helped Pony then nothing bad would have happened." Soda said rubbing his face.

"But if she did help out they would have hurt her as well? And she wouldn't have been able to do anything anyway!"

"That's what I told her."

"Where is she now?"

"She's gone take a nap." Soda pointed in the direction to where he room was.

"You should ask her come the game tonight. It might cheer her up a bit."

"Yeah good idea. Remind me wake her up in an hour!" Steve nodded, glad that Soda that agreed to invite her to the game, he thought that the girl needed some cheering up and sitting at home would only make things worse.

_**Ahh such a horrible chapter I'm sorry! xD I'm also sorry that it's uploaded late, I don't have a good excuse, I was busy all day Friday and then went to a party at my brothers house, but it was only going be a lads night but my brother forgot he invited me and then one of his friends took his girlfriend so there were only us two girls xD didn't talk to her that much though, we had chocolate mint ice cream at 2 in the morning ;) **_

_**and then on Saturday I thought I would upload but I was hungover and couldn't bring myself to write anything so I slept most of yesterday and then today I had a poorly stomach xD and I've only just finished this chapter even though it isn't very long and isn't very good! **_

_**Even though it wasn't great please leave a review it will make me happy **____** And hopefully the chapter next week will be uploaded on time, will be longer and better **___

_**Thanks for reading!**_

_**Holly xxx**_


	13. Chapter 13

"Lori, wake up it's been an hour." Soda said sitting on the edge of his sister's bed. She stirred a little bit and slowly sat up rubbing her eyes.

"That seemed longer than an hour." She let out a half-hearted laugh.

"Ok, I may have let you have 5 minutes extra." He chuckled, "anyway, me and Steve wanted to know if you want to come the game with us tonight?"

"Well I haven't really got anything planned tonight… You're sure you and Steve don't mind?"

"Nah we don't mind. It was actually Steve's idea, he thought it would cheer you up!"

"Really?" Lori slowly smiled to herself, though she had no idea why.

"Yep, now come on! Get yourself ready we're leaving in an hour." Lori looked at the clock and saw it was 4, the game started at half 5 so she guessed Soda and Steve wanted get there half an hour early.

"Okay, I won't be long." She smiled as Soda got up of her bed and left her room. She got out of bed and stretched; she quickly ran a comb through her hair and ran to the bathroom to have a quick shower, after her shower and drying her hair she stuck on a pair of denim shorts with a white tank top and a black, plain cardigan. She didn't bother with any make up, only a little bit of mascara. When she was done, it was quarter to 5; she was finished 15 minutes before they had to leave.

"Ready!" She said as she plopped down on the sofa next to Sodapop.

"You plan on going out bare foot?" Steve laughed.

"What?" She asked confused and Steve pointed to her feet, "Oh shit!" She jumped back up and ran to her room, pulling out a pair of old tennis shoes from her closet. She ran back into the living room panting, "Ok, now I'm ready! God I am really un-fit!" Soda and Steve laughed as they stood up.

"Come on let's go!" Soda said getting up and heading out the door, followed by Steve. When they arrived at the school where the game was they got their seats and were just talking.

"Sodapop!" Soda looked down a few bleachers where the girls voice came from.

"Oh hey Sandy!" Soda called over to her and gestured for her to come over to him.

"I didn't know you were coming tonight." She said when she reached them.

"Yeah, do you want sit with us?"

"Sure!" She smiled and sat on the other side of Soda. They started talking, Lori and Steve just sat listening to their conversation, "Oh Evie over here!" Sandy suddenly called.

"Evie? You're not serious?" Steve moaned.

"You don't mind do you?"

"No, he doesn't!" Soda said giving his best friend a look.

"I thought we were sitting down front?" Evie asked as she reached them.

"We were but Soda said we could sit with him!" Sandy said.

"Oh... Hi Steve." She said giving him a flirty smile.

"Hi." He replied without looking at her.

"Well, I'm going to the bathroom! Be right back." Lori said standing up and quickly ran down the steps, she felt rather awkward being there. She made her way down the tunnel to where the toilets were. After finishing her business she washed her hands; not wanting to go back to them just yet she leant against the wall and closed her eyes, she thought she was stupid for going the game. She should have known that Soda and Steve would end up with girls by the end of the night, _'why did I even come? I hate watching these games!' _A deep voice brought her out of her thoughts.

"Are you okay?" She opened her eyes and saw a guy standing in front of her, she didn't recognise his face. She looked at what he was wearing; he didn't look like a greaser or a Soc.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She said standing up straight and slowly backed away from him, even though this particular guy didn't give her a reason to fear him, she still didn't feel comfortable around him.

"I'm Billy." He smiled.

"Lori."

"I know, I've seen you around before." She nodded.

"I should get back to my brother and friend, they'll probably be wondering where I've gotten to."

"They look pretty busy with those two girls." She gave him a confused look, "I saw you with them. I saw that you came down here."

"So you followed me?"

"You didn't look very comfortable; you look like a 5th wheel with them. Thought maybe that you'd want to go someplace else." He said stepping closer to her.

"No, I'm fine."

"Oh come on, we both know you don't want to be here! I know someone who has a party going onto night, we can go there!" He took her hand and attempted to pull her towards the exit.

"No. I don't want to go with you!" She tried to pull free from his grip but failed.

"Why not? It's not like you have a boyfriend!" Before she could say anything she felt a hand rest on her shoulder,

"Actually she does." She turned around and saw Steve standing there with a serious look on his face.

"Randle? You're Sodapops best friend; you can't be dating his sister." Billy let go of her hand and Steve pulled her closer to him, wrapping his arm around her shoulders.

"Well I am. So keep away from her." Billy huffed and walked away.

"Thanks for that…" She said taking a step away from him.

"No problem." He shoved his hands into his jeans pockets.

"What were you doing down here anyway?"

"Saw Billy looking you, and then when you left soon after he got up as well' I figured it was nothing but when I noticed you had been gone a while I thought I'd come check up on you."

"Oh right."

"He was right wasn't he?"

"What do you mean?" She asked confused.

"You'd rather not be here?"

"I'm sorry Steve! I thought I'd be up for it when we actually got here but, I guess I'm just not."

"Do you want to go home?"

"My rides with you and Sodapop, I don't really fancy walking." She said, thinking about those Socs that jumped Ponyboy.

"How about this, I go tell Soda you aint feeling too good and that I'm going drive you home. Soda seems pretty busy with Sandy anyway, and I don't wanna be stuck with Evie all night."

"Are you sure? Didn't you want to see the game?"

"I wouldn't be able concentrate on the game anyway; I'd have Evie talking my ear off. I'll go tell him now" Lori nodded and Steve ran up to where Soda was.

"Hey where is she?" Soda asked when he saw that Lori wasn't with Steve.

"She's not feeling too good, so I said I'll take her home."

"You sure?" Soda asked.

"She's 16, why can't she see herself home." Evie snapped.

"Evie!" Sandy shouted at her best friend.

"What! It's true."

"Shut it Evie, you're 17 and demand someone go with you everywhere." Steve said. Evie didn't answer but crossed her arms.

"Ok, tell her get better off me!" Sodapop said.

"Will do, see you later." Steve ran back down the steps to where Lori was waiting. "Okay let's go."

"Thanks Steve." Lori smiled at him.

"No problem." He returned the smile and they walked to his car.

**I know, this is a very late update! No excuses only its been Christmas and New year, I'm sorry! But I've tried to make this status longish for you **** Hope you enjoyed it! Please remember to leave a review! **

**Hope you all had a good Christmas and a good new year! **

**Holly xxx**


	14. Chapter 14

**Alright guys so this time I have a legit excuse for not updating for the last month or so! I have been without a computer and have had no excess to one and I actually did have half a page written but obviously that got lost as well :( but now I have a new laptop and I can start writing this again! :) And you have to excuse the horrific spelling and grammar now because I'm writing this on WordPad because I haven't got the official word yet! But I will try my best and I hope you guys haven't given up on me! :)**

"Thank's for the ride Steve." Lori said unbuckling her seat belt.

"No problem." Steve smiled at her. Lori returned the smile as she got out the car and headed inside.

"Darry I'm home." She said falling back on the sofa.

"What happened to the game?" He asked sitting down in his chair.

"Didn't really feel like sitting through the entire game, Steve drove me home."

"Steve drove you home?" Darry asked raising his eyebrows, "He missed the beginning of the game to drive you home? That's un-like Steve..."

"He was just doing me a favor " Lori said, and before Darry could reply the phone rang. He got up to answer and a few seconds later he came back in.

"It's Angela, she want's talk to you."

"Angel?" Lori said answering the phone again.

"Hey Lori! What are you doing tonight?"

"Erm nothing really, why?"

"Want come sleep over? It's just me in the house."

"Let me ask Darry hold on... Darry! Can I sleep Angels tonight?" Lori shouted to him.

"Sure!" He shouted back.

"Hmm, that was easy. He said yes, so when should I come around?"

"Be ready in 10, I'll come pick you up!" 10 minuets later Lori was standing outside her house staring with her mouth open hanging open.  
"Where did you get this car from?" Lori asked.

"It's Tim's, one of the guys from his gang picked him up so he left the car here!"  
"Can you even drive?"

"Well I haven't really been taught, but I got here in one piece didn't I?" Angel laughed. Lori got in the car reluctantly and made sure to fasten her seat belt.

"I can't believe we're not dead.." Lori said eyes wide clinging onto her seat even though they weren't moving anymore.

"Don't mention this to Tim!" Angel laughed again as the two girls made their way inside. "So how come you haven't gone the game tonight?"

"I did, but left before it really started. Didn't feel like it, so Steve drove me home."

"Steve drove you home?" Angel asked with the same reaction that Darry had.

"Why does everyone sound so shocked?" Lori asked confused.

"Because, it's so... Un-Steve like.. Him driving you home meant him missing the start of the game, surely he would have known that?"

"I guess, he's not stupid or anything." Angela pursed her lips and then broke out into a full toothy grin.

"He likes you!" She said jumping up and down.

"Don't be so stupid! He does not like me, he's Sodapop's best friend!"

"So? That doesn't stop him from liking you. If you weren't his best mates sister he would be all over your fine little ass." Angel laughed.

"Oh quit it!" Lori smacked Angela on the arm and laughed as well. "So what's happening with you? Any guys on the scene?"

"Just the same old ones. It's gets boring after a while, I mean all the guys are basically the same. I want get out of Tulsa and go into the big world and explore all those different type of guys! No greaser guys, no Soc guys just... Normal guys."

"I think we all dream of getting out of here, for different reasons obviously. For one it would be nice for everyone to just get along! Where money didn't determine who is better than who.. Yeah that would be nice." Angela nodded and the two girls talked about their dreams and what they thought the world was like.

**Bit of a dull ending there and it wasn't very long but hey I needed get it uploaded! There will be more action in the next chapter, hope you enjoyed it!**  
**Holly xxx**


	15. Chapter 15

**Guys! I'm finally updating on time! How great is this? Enjoy :) Oh and I think I wrote that she dropped out of school to work in The Dingo but I've wrote about her being in school... So just ignore the whole dropping out thing! She goes to school and works! There will be parts of the book in this so I will say I do not own anything that you can recognise from the book!**

The next morning Angela woke up to a banging on her front door, she slowly got out off bed and made her way downstairs to open the door.

"Curtis, Randle? What do you want?" She asked furrowing her eyebrows.

"Is Ponyboy here?" Soda asked desperatly.

"No, why would he be here?"

"Because Lori is here." Steve said.

"Lori isn't here." She said leaning against the door frame.

"What do you mean she isn't here?" Soda asked panicking.

"She went work early this morning. What's going on?" The two boys ran down the path and drove off in Steves car without saying anything. "What the fuck?" She scratched her neck before going back to bed.

Lori was wiping down a table at the back of The Dingo when she heard the door open, she looked up and saw Soda and Steve rushing in and frantically looking around.

"Soda? Steve?" She asked walking up to them.

"Oh thank god!" Soda said as soon as he saw her. "Have you seen Ponyboy?"

"Not since before the movie. Why?"

"He's gone missing." Lori's eyes widened.

"What?"

"He came home late last night, him and Darry and a fight, Darry pushed Pony and he ran out. We haven't seen him since."

"Oh my god." Lori said slowly sitting down in the booth she was cleaning. "Well have you tried Johnny? Maybe he's with him."

"Two-Bit's looking for him now." Steve said.

"I'm going ask my boss if I can leave now. It's pretty dead." Lori said before running in the back to her boss.

"Steve?" Soda caught the way his best friend was looking at his little sisteras she walked off.

"Yeah?"

"Do you like Lori?" Steve was shocked at the question.

"Well... Yeah I mean she's tuff."

"I mean... Do you like her?"

"She's your little sister man, what made you think I like her?" Steve said, avoiding answering the question and hoped that Soda didn't notice this.

"I don't know, just the way you look at her at times. Just ignore me, it's this whole Ponyboy buisness, messing with my head." Soda said leaving it, but he knew that Steve had started looking at Lori in a different way.

"He say's it's okay." Lori said walking up to them.

"Right, let's go back to the house then see if Two-Bit's there." Soda said nodding and the three of them drove home.

"Darry?" Soda called walking into the house, followed by Lori and Steve. "Any news?" He asked when Darry walked out of the kitchen.

"No..." Darry said shaking his head and then turned to his sister, "Lori I-"

"Don't say anything. I swear Darry... He better be okay." Lori said. Before anyone could say anything else Two-Bit came rushing in the house.

"Two-Bit, have you found him?"

"No, they've both just disapeered... I think I know why."

"Well go on?" Lori said desperatly.

"Last night, a Soc was found dead in the park. He had been stabbed, it was Bob Sheldon."

"You think that Pony and Johnny had something do with it?"

"Don't you think it's kind of strange? And they hauled Dally into the station, they think he knows something about it." Two-Bit said sitting down.

"Well I guess we're just going have to wait untill Dally comes around to find out what's happening." Darry said putting his head in his hands.

A few hours later, right before Soda and Steve were about to go out again to serch for Ponyboy and Johnny, Dally walked through the front door. All heads turned to look at him as he just sat on the sofa and lit a cig.

"Well!" Lori pratically shouted at him.

"What?"

"What the police say? What's happening?" Soda asked.

"They know that Pony and Johnny did it." Was all he said.

"You mean they actually killed someone?" Lori asked, feeling tears start to form in her eyes.

"So what do you know about it? Why did they take you to the station?" Steve asked when nobody answered Lori's question.

"They figure anything that goes down in this town I have something do with it... I told them that they are heading to Texas."

"Well we've got to go get them!" Two-Bit said bolting up out of his seat.

"Don't be stupid. Us going find them will just make it easier for the cops find them, can you imagine Johnny or Pony inside?" Dallas said. Two-Bit sat back down and stayed quiet for once. The next few days everyone tried to go on with their normal lives, as normal as they could get anyway. The news that Johnny and Ponyboy had killed that Soc hasn't made live any easier on the east side. It wasn't safe for anyone to walk the streets alone, they found this out after the Soc's had jumped Two-Bit.

Lori was sitting on the sofa reading a book that she found lying around in Pony's and Soda's room, when Soda walked in not looking like him self at all.

"Where've you been?" She asked him sitting up.

"Down Bucks, to see Dally." He said walked into the kitchen.

"Why?" She followed him.

"He know's where they are. I know he does!"

"How do you know that?"

"I saw Ponyboys shirt in his room. He wouldn't tell me though, he didn't deny knowing where they are either! I gave him a note to give to Pony, if he didn't know where they are he wouldn't have took the note." Lori nodded and stormed out the house without saying a word.

"Well looky here, another Curtis!" Buck said when he saw Lori walk in.

"Is Dally here?"

"Upstairs as usual. Has he done something to you all considering now two of you have come?"

"No.. I just need to talk to him." She said before walking up the stairs to his room.

"Where are they?" She asked storming in.

"Not you as well." Dally said rolling his eyes.

"Answer me Dallas."

"I've said it before, they're on their way to Texas."

"That's bullshit and you know it!" She shouted at him.

"Anything else Curtis?" He asked, not looking at her. Lori shook her head and stormed out. She waited outside Bucks for a while, not wanting to go home yet when she noticed the door open and Dally walking out. He walked over to Bucks car and got in the drivers side, before realising what she was doing, Lori ran over to the car and got in the passenger side.

"What the fuck Lori!" Dallas shouted.

"You're going see them now, aren't you?" He didn't say anything but just looked out the window. "Dally, please. Just let me come with you!" Again he didn't say anything but just sighed and started the car.

"They're in Windrixville..." Dallas said after a while of driving. Lori just made an 'o' shape with her mouth and the rest of the ride was silent. They pulled up on a hill and walked over to a small church. Lori saw a figure sitting on some steps and looked like they were reading something, at first she thought it was Ponyboy but she saw the black hair and knew instantly it was Johnny. As they got closed to the figure she shouted him.

"Johnny!" She enveloped him in a hug.

"Hey Lori." He said hugging her back, "Hey Dal" He achknowledged Dally when Lori let him go.

"How's it been kid?" Dally said.

"Okay I guess." Johnny replied shrugging his shoulders.

"Where's Ponyboy?" Lori asked.

"Inside, come on." Johnny motioned for the two to follow him. Inside they saw Ponyboy curled up in a corner looking like he was sleeping. Dally walked up to him and nudged him in the side with his toe.

"Glory, he looks different with his hair like that." Dally said taking in his now golden hair that was grease free, Lori just stood there with her mouth hanging open. Ponyboy rolled over and sat up while rubbing his eyes before seeing Lori and Dally standing in front of him.

"Hey Dally! Hey Lori!"

"Hey Ponyboy" Dally said grinning, "Or should I say sleeping beauty."

"Ponyboy!" Lori grabbed him and squeezed him into a very tight hug.

"How are you Lori?" He asked wrapping his arms around her and then let go.

"I've been good, apart from the part where I've been worried sick about you!"

"I'm sorry..." Pony said looking at the floor and then turned to Dally. "How's Sodapop? Are the fuzz after us? Is Darry all right? Do the boys know where we are? What..."

"Hold on, kid," Dally interupted. "I can't answer every thing at once. You two want to go get something to eat first? I skipped breakfast and I'm about starved."

"You're starved?" Johnny said with a slight laugh.

"Is it safe to go out?" Pony asked rather eagerly.

"Yep." Dally said, then started searching his pockets for a cig. "Gotta cancer stick, Johnnycake?" Johnny nodded and threw him a full pack. "The fuzz won't be lookin' for you around here," Dally said, lighting up the cig. "They think you've lit out for Texas. I've got Buck's T-bird parked down the road a little way. Gosh all mighty, boys, ain't you been eatin' anything?" He said taking in their appearances.

"Yeah. Whatever gave you the idea we ain't?" Johnny asked, startled by the question.

"You're both pale and you've lost weight. After this, get out in the sun more. You look like you've been through the mill." Dallas said shaking his head. Lori just stayed quiet and watched the boys talk."Hey, Ponyboy"- he fumbled with a piece of paper in his back pocket- "I gotta letter for you."

"A letter? Who from?"

"The President, of course, stupid. It's from Soda."

"Sodapop?" Ponyboy said bewildered. "But how did he know...?"

"He came over to Buck's for something and found that sweat shirt. He gave me this letter and half his pay check to give you. Kid, you ought to see Darry. He's takin' this mighty hard..." Ponyboy took the letter and started reading it.

"Soda never told me about the paycheck..." Lori said quietly.

"Maybe he thought you'd kick off." Dally shrugged.

"How come you got hauled in?" Pony asked Dally.

"Shoot, kid" He grinned wolfishly "them boys at the station know me by now. I get hauled in for everything that happens in our turf. While I was there I kinda let it slip that y'all were headin' for Texas. So that's where they're lookin'."

He took a drag on his cigarette and cussed it good naturedly for not being a Kool.

"You sure can cuss good, Dally." Johnny said with admiration.

"Sure can," Dally agreed wholeheartedly, proud of his vocabulary. "But don't you kids get to pickin' up my bad habits."

"Christ Pony I can't get used to your hair like that! It used to look tuff. You and Soda had the coolest lookin' hair in town." Lori said still bewildered.

"I know" He said sourly. "I look lousy, but don't rub it in."

"Do y'all want somethin' to eat or not?" Dally said

Both Pony and Johnny jumped up. "You'd better believe it"

"Gee," Johnny said wistfully, "it sure will be good to get into a car again."

"Well," Dally drawled, "I'll give you a ride for your money."

Dally always drovefast, as if he didn't care whether he got where he was going or not. They drove down the hill doing eighty-five. They stopped at a Dairy Queen and ordered what they wanted.

"Glory," Dallas said, amazed, watching the boys gulp the stuff down. "You don't need to make like every mouthful's your last. I got plenty of money. Take it easy, I don't want you gettin' sick on me. And I thought I was hungry!" Dally sighed before carrying on, "I didn't tell y'all something, the Socs and us are having all-out war fare all over the city. That kid you killed had plenty of friends and all over town it's Soc against grease. We can't walk alone at all. I started carryin' a heater..."

"Dally!" Ponyboy said frightened. "You kill people with heaters!"

"Ya kill 'em with switchblades, too, don't ya, kid?" Dally said in a hard voice. Johnny gulped. "Don't worry," Dally went on, "it ain't loaded. I ain't aimin' to get picked up for murder. But it sure does help a bluff. Tim Shepard's gang and our outfit are havin' it out with the Socs tomorrow night at the vacant lot. We got hold of the president of one of their social clubs and had a war council. Yeah-" Dally sighed, "just like the good old days. If they win, things go on as usual. If we do, they stay outa our territory but for good. Two-Bit got jumped a few days ago. Darry and me came along in time, but he wasn't havin' too much trouble. Two-Bit's a good fighter. Hey, I didn't tell you we got us a spy."

"We have a spy?" Lori asked confused.

"Who?" Johnny asked.

"That good-lookin' broad I tried to pick up that night you killed the Soc. The redhead, Cherry what's-her-name."

"Wait, you were trying pick up girls when your with Sylvia?" Lori didn't quite understand why she was so shocked by Dally trying get with other girls when he was with someone.

"We broke up, this time for good."

**Blunt ending but I've gotten in out early :) and it's quite long? It looks long on word pad anyway, hope you enjoyed it and if you have time please leave a quick review :) Thanks for reading!**

**Holly xxx**


	16. Chapter 16

"So Cherry's working as a spy for you? Cherry the Soc?" Pony said.

"Yeah," Dally said. "She came over to the vacant lot the night Two-Bit was jumped. Shepard and some of his outfit and us were hanging around there when she drives up in her little ol' Sting Ray. That took a lot of nerve. Some of us was for jumping her then and there, her bein' the dead kid's girl and all, but Two-Bit stopped us. Man, next time I want a broad I'll pick up my own kind." Dally went on but non of the others were listening, but thinking about how much of a mess things had gotten into.. Lori for one was thinking about how some of the guys actually considered jumping a girl, they had never even thought of the idea before.

"How do you know about the Church Dallas?" Ponyboy asked.

"I got a cousin that lives around here somewheres. Tipped me off that it'd make a tuff hide-out in case of something."

"You boys are smart." Lori started, "Cutting and bleaching your hair. Your descriptions are in the paper, but sure as heck no one will ever picture you two to them."

"It don't matter. We're going back, turn ourselves in." Johnny said quietly.

"What?" Dallas demanded.

"I said we're goin' back and turn ourselves in," Johnny repeated in a quiet voice. "I got a good chance of bein' let off easy," he said desperately, "I ain't got no record with the fuzz and it was self-defense. Ponyboy and Cherry can testify to that. And I don't aim to stay in that church all my life. We won't tell that you helped us, Dally, and we'll give you back the gun and what's left of the money and say we hitchhiked back so you won't get into trouble. Okay?"

"You sure you want to go back? Us greasers get it worse than anyone else." Dally said chewing his ID card.

"I'm sure. It ain't fair for Ponyboy to have to stay up in that church with Darry, Soda and Lori worryin' about him all the time. I don't guess..."- he swallowed and tried not to look eager- "I don't guess my parents are worried about me or anything?"

"The boys are worried," Dally said in a matter-of-fact voice. "Two-Bit was all set going to Texas to find you!"

"My parents," Johnny repeated doggedly, "did they ask about me?"

"No," snapped Dally, "they didn't. Blast it, Johnny, what do they matter? Shoot, my old man don't give a hang whether I'm in jail or dead in a car wreck or drunk in the gutter. That don't bother me none." No one said anything and Dally sped out of the parking lot. After a bit of driving Dally spoke again, "Blast it, Johnny," Dally growled as they flew along the red road, "why didn't you think of turning yourself in five days ago? It would have saved a lot of trouble."

"I was scared," Johnny said with conviction. "I still am." He ran his finger down one of his short black sideburns. "I guess we ruined our hair for nothing, Ponyboy."

"I guess so..." Ponyboy said.

"Johnny," Dally said in a a pleading, high voice, "Johnny, I ain't mad at you. I just don't want you to get hurt. You don't know what a few months in jail can do to you. Oh, blast it, Johnny"- he pushed his white-blond hair back out of his eyes, "you get hardened in jail. I don't want that to hap pen to you. Like it happened to me..." Lori thought about what Dally would be like if he had never been in jail.

"Would you rather have me living in hide-outs for the rest of my life, always on the run?" Johnny asked seriously.

"He has a point Dally." Lori said. Dally didn't say anything and the rest of the ride was in silence. "Oh god..." Lori exclaimed as Dally slammed on the brakes, jolting everyone forward. The church was up in flames.

"Let's go see what the deal is." Pony said jumping oout of the car.

"Pony!" Lori shouted after him.

"What for?" Dally sounded irritated. "Get back in here before I beat your head in." But Pony didn't listen and ran towards the group of people, well group of Children and two adults. Johnny ran after him followed by Lori and then eventually Dally. Before Lori and Dally could catch up tp Pony and Johnny, they had both entered the church.

"Ponyboy!" Lori shouted hysterically and went to run in after him but Dally grabbed her.

"Don't you go running in as well!" Dallas shouted at her. She just looked at him and the pair went to a window that Johnny had pushed open.

"Get the kids!" Johnny shouted to them. Before Dally realised, Lori had climbed in the window to help get the children.

"Lori what the fuck!" Dallas shouted at her as he was grabbing the children of Ponyboy. After picking up the last child, Lori shouted to the others;

"Come on!" She coughed, "This place is going come down any minuet!" She went to the window, passed Dally the child and then climbed out. "Pony, Johnny come on!" Johnny pushed Ponyboy out, but the jacket he was wearing was on fire. They all heard Johnny scream, Dallas clubbed Pony on the back to put out the fire and then jumped in the Church to get Johnny. Lori ran to Pony who had passed out.

"Is he ok?" The man came over to her.

"Does he look ok!" She all but shouted at him, as best as she could but her throat was sore from the smoke.

"I've called 911." Lori nodded but just focused on Ponyboy.

Ponyboy woke up in the abulance, he looked up and saw Lori and the fat man with him.

"Where...?" He said hoarsely.

"Take it easy Pony." Lori said still coughing, she was covered in soot as well as Pony. After the fat man walked over to her and Pony she went back in the church to try help Dally with Johnny. "You're in the ambulance."

"Where's Johnny and Dally?" He asked frantically.

"They're in the ambulance behind us. You passed out when Dally clubbed you, you were on fire but you're going to be okay."

"Glory, I didn't feel the fire."

"We put it out before you got burned. That jacket saved you from a bad burning, maybe saved your life. You just keeled over from smoke inhalation and a little shock, of course, that slap on the back didn't help much." The man said. "I'm Jerry by the way."

"I'm Lori and this is Ponyboy."

"Are you taking us to the police station?"Pony asked Jerry

"The police station? What would we want to take you to the police station for? We're taking all three of you to the hospital."

"Pony everythings going alright." Lori tried to reasure him.

"Are Johnny and Dally alright?"

"Dally's going be okay. He just burnt his arm real bad when he was trying to help Johnny and making sure I was out before the whole building came crashing down."

"What about Johnny?"

"A piece of timber caught him across the back, he might have a broken back, and he was burned pretty severely. He passed out before he got out the window. They're giving him plasma now." Lori explained.

"I swear, you three are the bravest kids I've seen in a long time. First you kids climbing in that window, and then the tough-looking kid going back in to save him. Mrs. O'Briant and I think you were sent straight from heaven. Or are you just professional heroes or something?" Jerry said.

"No, we're greasers," Ponyboy said sounding worried.

"You're what?"

"Greasers. You know, like hoods, JD's. Johnny is wanted for murder, and Dallas has a record with the fuzz a mile long."

"Are you kidding me?" Jerry stared at Pony and then looked to Lori.

"It's true." Lori nodded her head. "You'll find out when we get to town."

"Are the kids okay?" Pony asked.

"They're fine, just a bit frightened. There were some short explosions right after you all got out. Sounded just exactly like gunfire."

In the hospital Lori was sitting with Pony and Jerry after they had been checked out, the say and watched as Johnny and Dally were rolled by on stretchers. Johnny was unconscious and Dally was still swearing, but when he saw Pony and Lori he said if they ever did a stu pid thing like that again he'd beat the tar out of them.

"Thank's for getting the kids out..." Jerry kept thanking them over and over again.

"It's no problem." They said. Pony pulled a cigarette out and started smoking.

"Pony!" Lori scolded him but he just shrugged.

"You shouldn't be smoking." Jerry said.

"How come?"

"You're too young." He stated. Pony just thought about what he said, everyone in the nieghbourhood apart from Darry and Lori smoked, and everyone started at a young age. "There are some people here to see you." Jerry sighed, "They say they're your brothers?" Ponyboy jumped up and ran up the hall way, but before he got to the door it was already open and before he knew Soda had him in a bear hug and was swinging him around. Lori just sat and watched the exchange down the hall from her brothers. Next came in Darry and the three boys hugged. "Are you not going join in? Aren't you their sister?" Jerry asked.

"I think I'll leave them to it for now..." Lori said. "I'm going go get something eat." She got up and headed in the opposite direction to the hospital cafeteria. She pulled a face at all the food and decided to just have a coke.

"Hey." She looked up and saw Soda smiling down at her.

"Hey." She said as he took a seat.

"What are you doing in here?" He asked he a confused look on his face.

"Thought I'd let you, Darry and Pony get reunited in peace. I wasn't the one gone for a week and no one knew where I was." She laughed.

"That don't mean we weren't worried about you Lori! When you didn't come home last night we were worried sick, first our little brother going missing then our little sister..."

"I'm sorry Soda."

"It's alright... Mighty you guys are heros! What's it like?" Soda asked with a wide smile on his face.

"I wouldn't necessarily call myself a hero!" She laughed, "It was more Pony and Johnny."

"Nah you too. Pony told us how you jumped in through that window help get those little kids. And it looks like you were in there for longer than what Pony said, look at you! You're covered in soot."

"I went back in...After Dally to help with Johnny,though I wasn't really much use."

"You tried, thats the main thing! Come on let's get back to Darry and Pony." Lori nodded and followed Soda out. When they approached their brothers they noticed a whole bunch of reporters, they took a lot of photos and asked a lot of questions. After the reporters left the place became alot quieter, all the noise there was were the nurses footsteps and Soda's soft breathing.

"He's hardly slept." Darry said. Lori knew that, she also knew that Darry hadn't either. Heck non of them had, they were all worried sick.

"Neither have you Darry." Soda said. The nurses were useless, they wouldn't tell them anything about Johnny or Dally so Darry got hold of one of the docters. After a bit of persuading he finally got the docter talking.

"Dallas is going to be okay," He said. "After a few days in hospital of course. He's got a pretty bad burn on his arm and it will be scared for the rest of his life. He won't have full use of his arm though untill a few weeks." The news about Johnny was bad though, they said he was in critical condition. His back had been broken when that piece of timber fell on him. He was in severe shock and suffering from third-degree burns. They were doing everything they could to ease the pain, although since his back was broken he couldn't even feel the burns below his waist. They said even if he lived, he'd be crippled for the rest of his life. The word 'if' ran through everyones mind. The thought of Johnny dying was heartbreaking.

"We'd better go home. We can't do anything here." Darry said. So the four of them went home, on the car Pony had fallen asleep. Lori decided that she was far to tired to actually sleep, so she just stayed quiet and looked out the window as they drove through the neighbourhood. When they arrived home, they tried to wake Pony up. When he wouldn't get up Darry lifted him up and decided to carry him to the house.

"He's getting mighty big to be carried," Soda said.

"Yeah.. He's sure lost some weight though." Darry said carrying him through the house and threw him on the bed.

"Good night." Darry said.

"Night Darry, night Lori." Soda said before climbing into bed next to Pony.

"Night." Lori said and then walked to her room. She took her shoes of, took her clothes off and put on one of Soda's old t-shirts that ended just above her knees. She just lay in bed and stared at the cieling, she wasn't thinking of anything, she cleared her mind to see if it would make it easier for her to sleep. It seemed like hours had gone by before she eventually drifted of into a deep sleep.

**Oh damnn look who's updated again ;) I'm on a roll this week I think. Hope you enjoyed it and thank you to those who reviewed last chapter! It means a lot :) **

**Holly xxx**


	17. Chapter 17

Lori woke up to voices coming from the living room. Everything sounded so normal, she thought things were normal... Untill she remember the events from the day before. She got out of bed and slowly made her way into the living room where the gang were, well the gang excluding Johnny and Dally.

"Well look who's finally awake!" Two-Bit shouted from the floor where he was watching Mickey Mouse.

"I'm only awake because you guys talk so loudly." She said taking a seat on the couch.

"Lori put some pants on!" Darry scolded when he walked in from the kitchen.

"I have pant's on." She stated. She looked down to what see that the shirt she was wearing only showed her legs off, it was only like wearing a dress. Darry sighed and shook his head.

"Anyway have you heard Lori?" Steve started, "You guys are in the paper, all about being heros."

"What?" She asked confused, Steve threw her the paper and she read through it. There was an article about Pony, Johnny, her and Dally about saving those little kids and then one all about her Soda, Pony and Darry.

"It was really just Pony, Johnny and Dally. I didn't really do anything." She shrugged.

"Lori, you heloed get them kids out." Pony said.

"What ever... I'm going go take a show, I feel disgusting." She said realising she still must of looked almost black considering she never took a shower. After her shower and changing into some clean underwear, she put on her denim capris and a red polka dot top and came of her shoulders and just put on a pair of pumps; she then tied her hair into a high ponytail so it wouldn't stick to her neck, then did basic make-up but with winger eyeliner. When she walked back out the guy's were talking about the Rumble that was supposed to be happening that night.

"I don't want you to fight Ponyboy..." Darry was saying.

"I've fought in all the others! Come on Darry." Pony begged.

"Aw come on superman. Let the kid fight!" Two-Bit said.

"Fine. You can fight, but don't go taking on guys twice your size."

"What are we talking about?" Lori said sitting down on the sofa.

"The rumble. Which before you even ask you're not coming too."

"Can't I even come watch?"

"No."

"But Darry!"

"No but's! I don't want to worry about you when I'm fighting."

"You won't to worry about me, I'll be on the sidelines cheering you all on!"

"No." Darry ended the argument.

"Fine. I'm going over to Angels house."

"Be back before 6, I want you here before we leave for the rumble." Darry said. He knew she was safe to walk over to Angelas house because it was the middle of the day so alot of people would be out and the Soc's know to not cause any trouble before a big rumble.

"I can't believe he won't even let me go to watch." Lori was sitting on the edge of Angelas bed, Angela just shrugged. "Is Tim letting you go watch?"

"I haven't asked, I've got a date tonight."

"Who with?" Lori asked confused.

"His name is Tony..."

"Oh yeah... Which gang is he in then?"

"He's not in a gang." Lori saw a small smile appear on Angels face. "He's new in town, he seems real nice and the best part is he doesn't know anything about Tim yet either! And he doesn't know anything about me as well, like he hasn't heard any rumours about me sleeping with every guy in town."

"Where'd you meet him then?"

"In a corner store actually. He was looking for suger but couldn't find where it was so he asked me... And I don't know we just started talking and next thing I know is he's asking me if I was get some diner and see a movie with him!"

"Aww Angel! Have you told Tim about him?" Tim may not seem the kind but he's very proctective as an older brother.

"No, not yet anyway... I wan't see where things go with this guy, I don't know... He just seems different than the rest!" She said now with a huge smile plastered on her face. "So tell me, what's happening with you and Stevie?"

"What? Nothing! Why would anything be 'happening'?"

"Well, it's pretty obvious that he likes you and I know for sure that you like him!"

"Angela, no way does he! And I don't like him, he's my brothers best friend." Lori protested.

"Girl, when you all get together you better come to me and tell me I was right. Thinkinh about you two would make some adorable babies!"

"Angela!" Lori exclaimed hitting her on the arm whilst laughing.

**Just a short chapter today guys, I didn't want to write about the whole rumble thing and that stuff in this chapter, so hopefully next chapter will be rather long. And I will warn you now to grab your tissues for the next chapter because sadly I am sticking to the book/film... So you all know what that means! **

**And yes! It is now easter holidays and I get two weeks off! That either means there's going to be more updates or hardly any updates untill these two weeks are over... Depending on what lifestyle I decided to live this fortnight... So yeah, that was another Lori and Angela moment which some of you seem to like and have asked for Angela to be in it more, so hope you enjoyed and have a nice easter! :) **

**Holly xxx**


	18. Chapter 18

"I'm back!" Lori shouted as she walked through the front door.

"I thought I told you to be back before 6." Darry said angrily.

"And I am. It's 5:56." Lori smiled as she sat down on the couch.

"Are we ready to go now then or what!" Two-Bit said jumping up. All the other guys jumped up cheering and made there way out the door.

"Remember, stay here!" Darry said pointing at her before following the guys out the door.

"Good luck!" She shouted after them, she laughed as she heard them chanting. "Now what am I supposed to do." She said falling back onto the sofa. She turned on the T.V and after a while of flicking through the few channels they had she turned it back off. "Screw this!" She jumped up and ran out the door and down to the vacant lot. As she approached she could hear the sounds of guys fighting, the grunting and odd scream. She snuck around to a big tree without getting noticed and climbed up it to get a good view. She couldn't quite tell who was winning but she had noticed how the Soc's seemed to keep trying gang up on one greaser, though it never worked out. She saw that Dally was there fighting and figured that he must of left the hospital; after a while the Soc's started retreating and a massive smile spread on her face as the Greasers started cheering. She climbed down the tree and went to run back home but she noticed Dally and Ponyboy heading to Dally's car, curiosity got the better of her and she ran towards them and got in the car.

"Lori! You're supposed to be back home." Pony scolded her as she shut the car door.

"Where are you two going?" She asked ignoring Pony.

"To the hospital, we gotta tell Johnny that we won." Dally said starting the car.

"Lori go home before Darry get's there. He'll skin ya!"

"No. I'm coming with you, I want see him." She could have gone earlier in the day, yes. But when she suddenly had an awful feeling and needed to see Johnny. As they sped down the road a siren came on behind them.

"Look sick." Dally said to Ponyboy. "I'll say I'm taking you to the hopsital." He pulled over and the cop slowly walked up to his window.

"Where's the fire buddy?"

"I'm taking him to the hospital." Dally said pointing to Ponyboy. "He fell off his motorbike." Ponyboy groaned to make it seem as though he was in pain.

"Is he hurt bad? Do you all need an escort?"

"How the hell am I supposed to know man. I aint no doc; Yeah, an escort would be great." He nodded and walked back to his car, turning on the sirens and flashing lights again. "Sucker." Dally hissed. He talked some more about how he was crazy for wanting Johnny to stay out of troube but Lori wasn't listening, she had an awful feeling in her gut that took her focus of everything. They got to the hospital in seconds and basically ran to Johnny's roon, but right outside was the doctor who stopped them for a brief moment.

"I'm sorry kids, but he's dying." Lori felt her heart sink and she knew the other two felt theirs as well.

"We gotta see him," Dally said, and flicked out Two-Bit's switchblade. His voice was shaking. "We're gonna see him and if you give me any static you'll end up on your own operatin' table."

"You can see him, because you're his friends. Not because of that knife." The docter said walking away. Dally put away the knife and the three of them walked into the room. At first they thought that he was dead already, he was too still.

"Johnnycakes." Dally said in a hoarse voice walking over to the bed, "Johnny.."

"Hey." Johnny said quietly opening his eyes.

"We won," Dally panted. "We beat the Socs. We stomped them, chased them outa our territory." Johnny showed no signs of happiness, like he didn't care that they had won.

"Useless... fight ing's no good..." They took in his appearance, he was as white as a ghost. Lori felt the tears start to well up in her eyes.

"They're still writing editorials about you in the paper. For being a hero and all." He changed the subject. He was talking too fast and too calmly. "Yeah, they're calling you a hero now and heroizin' all the greasers. We're all proud of you, buddy." Johnny's eyes glowed, Dallas being proud of him was all he ever wanted.

"Ponyboy..." Pony walked over to him.

"Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold." The pillow sinked and he was gone.

"That's what you get for tryin' to help people, you little punk, that's what you get... Damnit Johnny!" He slammed one fist into the wall, making Lori flinch. ""Oh, damnit, Johnny, don't die, please don't die..." Then he bolted down the hall without saying anything to Pony or Lori.

Ponyboy and Lori walked home because Dally had taken the car. Niether of the saying anything, both in shock. That horrible feeling in Lori's stomach had grown even worse, she felt like someone was punching her from the inside.

"Do you kids want a ride?" A man said pulling up by them.

"Huh? Oh. Yeah I guess so." Normally Lori would think twice about getting into a strangers car, especially at night but at that moment she didn't care. They both got into the car and just sat in silence.

"Are you all right, kid? You look like you've been in a fight." The man said looking concerned.

"I have been. A rumble. I'm okay." Lori knew he wasn't okay, but not because of the rumble.

"Hate to tell you this, kiddo," the guy said dryly, "but you're bleedin' all over my car seats."

I blinked. "I am?"

"Your head."

"Gosh, mister, I'm sorry," I said, dumfounded.

"Don't worry about it. This wreck's been through worse. What about you girl, you okay?" He said looking in the back to her. She just nodded, not being able to find her voice. "What's your address?" Pony told him and the man drove them without asking anymore questions.

"Thanks." Ponyboy said getting out of the car and waited a second for Lori. The others were in the living room, busted up. Steve was stretched out on the sofa, his shirt unbuttoned and his side bandaged. His eyes were closed, but when the door shut behind them, he opened them, his eyes looking feverish and bewildered. Soda had a wide cut on his lip and a bruise across his cheek. There was a Band-Aid over Darry's forehead and he had a black eye. One side of Two-Bits face was taped up. They were lounging around, reading the paper and smoking. They all looked up as Pony and Lori walked further into the living room, Darry leaped to his feet.

"Where the hell have you two been? Lori I thought I told you to stay here." He said before noticing that Lori was crying. "What's the matter? What happened?"

"Johnny... He's dead... We told him that we won and he just.. He died!" The room was completely silent. "Dally's gone.. He ran out like the devil was after him. He's gonna blow up, he couldn't take it." By now Lori had collasped on the floor and just brought her knees up to her chest and hugged them, silently crying.

"So he finally broke..." Two-Bit said. "Even Dally has a breaking point.

"Ponyboy, sit down. You look sick." Soda said as though he was talking to an injured animal. Hearing the word sick, Lori jumped up and ran to the bathroom puking her guts up. Though that feeling in her stomach was still getting worse. After she knew she was done she rinsed her mouth out and walked back into the living room where Darry had just hung up the phone.

"It was Dally. He phoned from a booth. He's, just robbed a grocery store and the cops are after him. We gotta hide him. He'll be at the lot in a minute." Even though they were all injured they all ran out of the house as fast as they could towards the Lot, even Lori. They got to the Lot just as Dally did, running as hard as he could from the opposite direction. They heard sirens getting louder and then police cars appeared around the lot, doors slammed and policemen jumped out. Dally was directly under a streetlamp, he jerked a gun from his waistband.

"It isn't loaded..." Ponyboy said quietly. Dally raised the gun in the air. "It isn't loaded!" He tried to scream. The policemen fired and Dally was jerked half around by the impact of the bullets. As he fell, he had a look of triumph on his face, as though that's what he wanted. Steve stumbled forward, a sob escaping his mouth but Soda caught him by his shoulders.

"There's nothing we can do now buddy." After that Lori couldn't hear anything, she knew that she was still standing, but she just stared at the lifeless body on the ground. If anyone was trying speak to her, she wouldn't know. Pony had passed out, as the guy's attention went to him Lori foudn herself running over to where Dally was lying and before any of them noticed she was already on the floor clutching onto the him.

"Dally! Come on Dally you can't die as well!" She sobbed, losing both of her friends in one night was too much for her to handle. "Wake up! Wake up you basterd come on!" She started to shout, she rolled her hands into fist's and had begun hitting his repeatedly on his chest, not caring that she was getting blood on her.

Lori woke up to bright light shining through her window. She wiped her eyes, and slowly sat up. All of a sudden everything that had happened the night before came flooding back into her memory. She felt that feeling in her stomach again and she just wanted to go back to sleep, but she knew that she couldn't spend the rest of her life in bed so she slowly climbed out and walked to the bathroom. She groaned as she looked in the mirror, her eyes red and puffy from crying so much and her hair was tangled, though she noticed that Dally's blood had been washed of her hands. She turned the tap on and splashed water over her face and then ran a comb through her hair. She walked into the living room to find only Soda and Darry.

"Hey, Lori." Soda greeted her as she sat down on the sofa. "How are you?" He asked with concern in his voice.

"I'm fine." She tried to smile but knew it wasn't very convincing.

"Are you sure? If you want to talk we're here." Darry said.

"Positive. I'm fine. What day is it?"

"Sunday." Darry answered.

"How's Ponyboy?" She asked concerned for her little brother.

"He came back from the hospital early this morning, he's got a concussion." Lori nodded.

"Well I'm going go get changed to go work." She said standing up.

"Lori you don't need to go work. You're boss called and said it's okay to take a few day's off, we've all got time off." Soda said.

"Just because someone dies doesn't mean everyone else should stop living. We still have bills to pay, we still have food to buy." She said before walking back in her room to change into her light pink uniform.

"Look Lori, me and Darry don't think it's such a good idea you going to work today..." Soda said as she walked back into the living to put her white pumps on.

"I want to work. It gives me something to do... Take my mind off things, please?" Darry sighed,

"Okay, do you want a ride?" He asked.

"No, it's okay I'll walk."

As she walked through the door's of The Dingo Tanya, her boss looked up confused.

"Lori? Hunny what are you doing here?"

"I'm here for my shift."

"Didn't your brothers tell you that you didn't have to come in today?"

"Yeah but I wanted to." She said tying the apron around her waist, then grabbed a notepad and pen and begin to serve customers. "What can I get you?" She asked walking up to one table.

"You're the chick who was friends with those two dead kids weren't you?" She took in the boys appearance, he didn't look like a Greaser, and he didn't look like a Soc. She figured he was middle class, the girl he was with smacked him on the arm.

"William! You can't just ask that." She scolded. "Sorry about him. And when we're on the topic I'm sorry about your friend's."

"It's fine." Lori replied with no emotion in her voice. "What do you want to order?" She asked again.

"I'll get a double cheese burger with fries and a coke." William said. "Jennifer?"

"I'll just get fries and a diet coke please." Lori wrote it all down before going to the kitchen to give the cook the orders and get the drinks. Drinks in hand, she walked back to the table. "You're food should be about 10 minuets." She said and walked off before they said anything else.

"Table at the back needs serving." The other waitress, Cynthia, said. Lori sighed and walked over to the table looking at the floor, hoping that the person doesn't see her face.

"Can I take your order?"

"Lori?" She looked up to see Steve staring at her looking confused.

"Steve. Shouldn't you be resting or something? You looked like you injured your ribs pretty bad."

"They're not that bad, and dad was doing my head in at home. What are you doing at work?"

"Please don't Steve. Just..." She sighed. "What do you want?"

"Uh, just two cokes." Lori raised her eyebrows.

"Expecting company?"

"You." Was all he said.

"Steve I'm working! I can't just stop what I'm doing to have a coke with you."

"Have you had a break yet?" He asked, she shook her head. "Hey Tanya, can Lori take her break now?" He shouted over to the front.

"Sure thing hunny!" She shouted back. Lori sighed and went to the front to get two cokes, then went back to the booth Steve was at and sat down.

"Here." She passed him the coke.

"You shouldn't be working Lori, not after last night."

"I want to. I just... If I'm not busy I'll have to think of them and then I'll get that horrible feeling in my stomach again and then I'll want to cry and then I feel pathetic... Steve it's like losing my parent's all over again, so much has happened these past few weeks and it's just getting too much, everyone is getting taken away from us. Any of you could be next, what if Ponyboy loses it like Dally did?" She felt tears fall from her eyes but didn't bother to wipe them away. Steve sighed and took her hands in his.

"Listen, non of us are going anywhere. And Pony isn't going to lose it, you know why?" Lori shook her head, "Cause he's stronger than Dal. Not in muscles, but in brain. Dally didn't show no emotions, he kept everything bottled up inside. That may seem alright at first but over time it'll eat you up from the inside, and one day they'll just break, like Dally did last night. But Pony, he ain't nothing like Dal! He'll talk to people ya know, he won't shut down. You don't need to worry about him. Do I make sense?"

"Yeah... Sort of." Lori said nodding. "Thank's Steve." She said smiling genuinly.

"No problem kid." He smiled back, then realised that he was still holding her hands and quickly let go. They sat in silence for a while, and Lori noticed a group of Greaser girls looking over at her and Steve, whispering and pointing.

"Oh for god sake..." She mumbled under her breath.

"What?"

"People talking about stuff that's non of their buisness!" She shouted and they instantly looked away and pretended they weren't looking. Steve laughed.

"There's going be a lot of that."

"I know.." She nodded, "Maybe this isn't a good idea.. Me coming to work, I can't handle that all the time."

"It'll be like that at school as well, you just got to ignore them."

"I guess..."

"And besides, Two-Bit will be there, I'll be there.. If any guys say anything I'll be the first to knock them all the way to Washington."

"Thankyou Steve..." Lori smiled, and before she knew it she was leaning across the table and kissing him. "Oh my god... I'm sorry!" She said before running out, "Tanya I'm sorry!" She shouted.

**Started writing this as soon as I woke up! I think it's one of the longest chapters I've wrote! Thankyou to those of you who reviews the last chapter :) And I hope you enjoyed this! **

**I changed the wording a little bit from the book but everything you recognise from The Outsiders obviously isn't mine, just what you don't recognise :)**

**Thanks for reading!**

**Holly xxx**


	19. Chapter 19

Steve sat, dumbfounded at what just happened. "Shit!" He cursed shooting up and began to run,

"Steve! You need pay!" Tanya shouted after him.

"I'll pay next time I come!" He shouted back running out the doors after Lori. When he got outside there was no sign off her, "Fuck." He said running his hands through his hair.

Lori was at a payphone down the road from The Dingo, through watery eyes she looked at the numbers and decided to call Angela. After 5 rings the phone was finally answered.

"Hello?" Tim's voice sounded groggy.

"Hey Tim, it's Lori... Is Angela there?"

"Uh hey, hold on." She heard him shout her, a few seconds later she picked up the phone.

"Hey Lori, what's up?"

"I was just wondering... If it's not too much trouble if I could stay at your's tonight?

"Yeah sure! Tony's out of town doing something for his dad." Angela said happily.

"Ok cool, I um.. Go back to mine get my stuff and then come straight to your's."

"Wait where are you?" She asked confused.

"At that payphone just down the road from The Dingo."

"Ok then, see you in a bit!" She said bye and hung up, then made her way back home hoping that Steve wouldn't be there. When she walked through the door and saw that he wasn't, she let out a sigh of relief.

"Thought you were working." Darry said without looking up from his newspaper.

"It got too much, just people pointing and whispering... Is it all right if I sleep Angels tonight? I'll be home after school on Monday. Please, I could do with just with some girly time."

"I don't know..."

"Oh come on Dar! It might do her some good." Soda said.

"Ok, you better go school on Monday though and I'll find out if you didn't."

"Don't worry I will. Thank's Darry." She gave him a small smile before going to her room and packing everything that she would need. "I'll see you Monday!" She said running out the door with her things.

"Hi!" Angel greeted with a smile holding the door open for Lori to walk in. They walked up stairs into Angels bedroom. "I know you've probably been asked this like a million times... but are you okay?"

"No, not really... But there's nothing that can be done, we've all just got to move on."

"If you ever want to talk, you know I'm here." Angela smiled, knowing not to push Lori.

"So how was that date? Tony was his name?"

"Oh my god Lori he's better than I thought! He was so sweet, I mean he walked me home... Literally all the way to the door, kissed me goodbye and just left! Like he wasn't expecting to fuck my brains out or anything!" Lori laughed with her friend, all the guys that Angela had been out with weren't the gentleman type. "I think I might tell Tim about him."

"Wow, he must be good then if you're going to tell Tim!"

"You need meet him Lori! He's amazing, you'll love him! What time is it?"

"I don't know, about 2'oclock?"

"Ok! Let's go out for a bit." Angela suggested.

"And do what?" Lori asked rising her eyebrows.

"I don't know! It'll be more entertaining than hanging around here though that's for sure."

"Ok, let's go!"

Steve walked into the Curtis house to be greeted with silence.

"Jesus." He said scratching the back of his head, "This is going take some getting used to."

"It just doesn't feel right." Soda agreed.

"Where's Darry?"

"Nap."

"Two-Bit?"

"Here." Two-Bit answered coming out of the kitchen with a mouth full of Chocolate cake. "That was the last slice, Lori's going have to make some more!"

"Lori?" She was the one he was really looking for, but Steve didn't want to make it obvious.

"She's staying over Angela's for the night, said she wanted some girl time."

"Darry let her?" Steve asked confused, he didn't usually let her sleep someones house when she had school the next day.

"Yeah, but with what's happened I guess he's just thinking what might be best for her." Soda said.

"Oh.."

"Everything okay?" Soda asked, sensing that something was off with his bestfriend.

"Yeah, I mean... Yeah, as far as being okay goes with what's happened."

"Angela..." Lori started, the two girls were back sitting on Angelas bed after spending 7 hours out, they went to the movies watched a beach film, went to the park and down to the lake.

"Yeah?" Angela replied, painting her nails.

"If I told you something... Do you promise not to tell anyone?"

"Swear on my grave. Now spill!"

"I kissed Steve." Lori shut her eyes as she said this.

"You what!?" Angel screamed and put her nail polish to one side.

"You heard." Lori bit her lip.

"What happened to 'I don't like him, he's my brothers best friend'" Angela tried to mimick Lori's voice.

"Ok for one, I do not sound like that!" She threw a pillow at Angela laughing, "And I don't know... I guess I lied."

"What did he say when you kissed him?"

"Nothing, I just said sorry and ran out."

"You kissed him and then ran! Oh my god Loir." Angela said putting her head in her hands.

"Well I wasn't going wait around for him to laugh at me!"

"Lori! He wouldn't have laughed at you, he likes you! I bet he loved that kiss."

"He doesn't like me."

"Are you really that blind?" Angela laughed.

"Can we just move onto a different subject please?"

"Ok then!" Angela picked up a copy of LOOK magazine and began to flick through the pages, then stopped. "Oh my god have you seen this?" Lori shook her head and took the magazine off Angela.

"Vietnam war escalation begins, 150,000 US troops deployed to Vietnam. Oh my god."

"Do you think this war will ever end?"

"It has to end, it can't go on forever..."

"Hey look! Sony have introduced a Betamax video recorder! It'd be cool to have one, all those home movies you could make, be the star of your own movie!" Angela said chaging the subject.

"Save up then and you can afford one."

"I'd be saving for ages Lori... And I love clothes too much!"

Lori woke up and slowly got out of the bed. She walked over to the window and opened the curtains.

"Angel wake up!" She said rubbing her eyes and nudgeing Angela with her foot.

"Ughh, just skip school today..." Angela mumbled into the pillow rolling over.

"I can't, I promised Darry I would go in to day and as my best friend you need to come with me because I can't face those hallways on my own."

"Ok, I'll get up." Angela said slowly sitting up and climbing out of bed. 30 minuets later the two girls were ready with 20 minuets to get to school. Angel wore her dark hair down, she chose to wear a denim mini skirt and a tight black t-shirt, but the top was cut so that it went into a v-neck and showed a lot of cleavage; and she wore her normal make-up that consisted of red lips and a lot of dark eye shadow and eyeliner. Lori wore her hair in a side braid, shorts that she had made from cutting an old pair of jeans and a dark red crop top and her converse. She had winged eyeliner, three coats of mascara and winged eye liner.

"It seems like such a long time ago since when I went to school." Lori mentioned as the girls were walking.

"Well it hasn't been easy for you has it. So much has happened in such a short amount of time."

"I wonder if Pony is awake yet."

"Well here's your chance to find out, Two-Bit's over there." Angela said pointing over to the school car park as they approached. "No Steve either."

"Come on, let's go ask." She said and walked over to him. "Hey Two-Bit."

"Oh hey Lori hey Angel!" Two-Bit greeted them.

"How's Ponyboy? He awake yet?"

"Nope not yet. You going home tonight?"

"Yeah, I told Darry I would." Two-Bit nodded.

"Good. Ya know, him and Soda are worried sick about you."

"Why? I'm fine."

"Don't lie Lori, we all know you're not fine. Non of us are fine, how can anyone be fine after everything that's happened!" Two-Bit started to raise his voice, earning looks from people who were walking past.

"Two-Bit calm yourself down!" Angel said, sounding as though she were his mother.

"I'm sorry. Just Lori, no one expects you to not be upset; we all know how you're feeling..." Two-Bit said, then the bell went.

"Come on, let's get to class." Lori said and the three of them started to walk, Lori stopped when she heard her name being called. Two-Bit carried on walking but Angel stayed with her.

"It's Steve." Angel said turning around to see who it was.

"Oh god no."

"Lori, we need to talk." Steve said finally catching up to them.

"I've got to get to class."

"It's only homeroom."

"Fine, talk." Lori agreed. Steve looked at Angela but she just stayed by Lori's side.

"Alone?"

"You don't have to go Angel." Lori quickly said.

"Oh no, it's fine!" Angela smiled, "I'll leave you two to it! See you at dinner Lori." She said before running up the steps into the building.

"Look Steve, I know what this is about.. I'm sorry! I don't know why I did it, it was stupid, I was stupid for doing it! I know you don't like me and I've probably just made things really awkward and I know that Soda is your bestfriend and you only think of me as a friend but-" Lori got cut off by Steve pressed his lips to her, after a few seconds he pulled away.

"You ran off before I could say anything."

"Wait.. What?" Lori asked confused.

"I don't know when I realised it, but I know that I've liked you for a while Lori. I didn't want to do anything because you're Soda's little sister, my best friend's little sister..."

"I'm still his little sister though."

"Yeah, but you kissed me. I don't want to sound cheesy or anything but there's something between us, hell Soda even asked me if I liked you." Steve chuckled.

"What did you say?"

"I said you're his little sister.. Look, if it's alright with you I'm going ask if I can take you out."

"That's fine with me.. But I think we should wait, at least untill after Johnny's and Dally's funeral. I mean so much has happened already they might not take it so well..."

"You're right, we'll put off asking... Or telling." Steve smiled.

"Okay, I need to get to class now.. I'll see you later." She turned around to run off but Steve grabbed her hand and pulled her back, kissing her once again. "I thought...?"

"Yeah, we're putting telling them on hold... Doesn't mean we have to put this on hold." She smiled and leaned up to kiss him before running to class.

**Soo they finally know how they feel for each other aw! And sadly this story will be coming to an end soon... BUT I may have a sequel in mind, so let mee know if you would be interested in that! **

**And regarding all this North Korea stuff... I know nothing's happened yet but I just hope you all stay safe! **

**Holly :) xxx**


	20. Chapter 20

Dinner came by rather quickly, Lori ran out to the back of the school to meet Angel with a big smile plastered on her face.

"What's the smile for?" Angel asked confused.

"What? Can't I just be smiling for no reason?"

"Well, after everything that's happened I would have though that you wouldn't be smiling for a reason unless something amazingly good has happened... Wait, what did Steve want to talk to you this morning about? Is he the reason you're smiling?"

"Well you were right." Lori smiled. "Steve kissed me." Angela squeled.

"So does that mean you're a thing now?"

"No." Angela looked at Lori, confused again. "We're not going tell any of the gang yet... Not untill have Johnny's and Dally's funerals, which is on Friday... So we're probably going tell them next Monday."

"And you guys reckon you can keep it a secret till then?" Lori nodded. "Well I'm happy for you! Things are finally working out." Angel smiled, "And now I have to leave you! Tony's back in town today and I want go meet him!"

"So you're skiping the rest of school?" Lori laughed.

"Yepp! bye." Angela ran off. Lori shook her head and laughed silently to her self, she hoped that someone she knew came by soon so she wasn't on her own.

"Hi Lori..." She whipped her head up to see Robby standing infront of her with his hands in his pockets.

"Fuck off!" She stood up and went to walk away but he grabbed her wrist stopping her.

"Damnit just let me talk!" He shouted at her, making her flinch. He sighed and let go of her, "I'm sorry."

"What?" Lori asked confused.

"I'm sorry." He repeted. "About everything... I was screwed up, I drank loads... Heck I think all the beatings I've gotten sorted my head out. I realise how I treated you was wrong, like really wrong. And I understand if you will never forgive me or never want to look at me again, but I just wanted to say sorry." He then walked away leaving Lori on her own again.

"The fuck..." She said to her self.

"Lori!" She looked up again and saw Steve running towards her. "Are you okay? What did he want?" He asked and Lori could make out just a little bit of worry in his voice.

"He said sorry..." She said sitting back down on the bench.

"Is that it?" He asked sitting down next to her.

"Yep."

"Sandy cheated on Soda." Steve blurted out.

"What?" Lori asked angrily.

"She's pregnant, it's some other guys kid. You know what really pissed me of though, Soda said he'd marry her. Raise the kid as though it's his own, he really loves her."

"Wait, so Soda's marrying Sandy?"

"No. She's moved to Florida."

"Oh my god, Sandy didn't seem the type..."

"Yeah well, never judge a book by it's cover." Judge. That reminded Lori that Pony had to go to court, that there was a chance that her, Soda and Pony might end up being put in homes.

"Steve?"

"Yeah?"

"Do you think, that Soda and Pony will be put in a boys home? And I'll be put in a girls home?" Steve was silent for a while.

"No. No, they can't! I mean y'all saved them kids from burning to death... They wouldn't."

"There's a chance though isn't there." Lori said more as a fact than a question. Steve didn't say anything but just put his arm around Lori and pulled her closed to him, at that moment he didn't care if anyone saw.

Tuesday morning, Lori was at the table eating a slice of toast. Ponyboy still hadn't woken up and Lori was worrying about him.

"Morning Lori." Lori's eye's snapped up to Pony walking over to the fridge, she shot up out of her chair and ran over to him eveloping him in a hug.

"Thank god you're awake! You had us all scared to death!"

"Why? What was the matter with me?"

"You've been asleep since Saturday! You had a minor concussion." Lori said, releasing her brother.

"How'd I get a concussion?"

"From the rumble I guess."

"Morning." Darry said walking in, then he saw Ponyboy. "Pony! You okay?"

"Yeah I think so." Pony scratched his head.

"I told you that you weren't in the right condition for the rumble! Two-Bit said that you had a fever, started blubbering saying how it was his fault that you were sick. He was pretty torn up, we all were."

"What happened at the rumble? Lori said that's how I got a concussion.

"Soda said he saw you get kicked in the head." Pony nodded.

"What day is today?"

"Tuesday." Lori said finishing her toast.

"I'm never going be able make up all the school I've missed! I've still got court, then there's Johnny's and Dally's funerals.. Do you think the social are going split us up?" Darry sighed,

"I dont know... I just dont know."

"Johnny left you his copy of Gone with the Wind Ponyboy." Lori said pointing at the book on the table. Pony was quiet for a while before speaking.

"Where's Soda?"

"Asleep, well he better be. I sent him back to bed, I thought he was going fall asleep shaving and cut his throat." Right at that moment Soda came running in, only wearing a pair of blue jeans.

"Hey Ponyboy!" He said, about to jump at Pony but Darry caught him.

"No rough stuff, little buddy." Soda started bouncing from one foot to another.

"Gosh, but you were sick. You okay now?" Soda asked.

"Yeah, just a little hungry."

"I should think you would be," Darry said. "You wouldn't eat anything most of the time you were sick. How'd you like some mushroom soup?"

"Man, I'd like that just fine." Darry nodded and began moving around the kitchen to get what he needed. "Sodapop, take it easy with him." Darry warned.

"You look beat, I bet you ain't had three hours sleep since Saturday night." Pony said. Soda just smiled and ruffled his hair." By now Lori had moved into the living room to watch Micky Mouse. "How's Lori been?" Pony said not realising that Lori could hear him.

"She's tried stay tough. You can tell she's still hurting though, she spent alot of time with Angel. I'm pretty sure she's been speaking to her about everything, so at least she's not keeping it all to herself."

"That's good... Do you know what's happening with the Funerals?"

"They're going be buried together, there's no money pay for a service. They're being put under on Friday morning around 12."

"Has anyone gotten in touch with Dally's dad?"

"Darry tried, he hasn't been home for a while now though. Darry left him a letter, so he knows at least." Soda said.

"Do Johnny's folks know?" Soda nodded,

"Yeah they know, can't see them turning up though. Everyone know's when it is, Tim's definatly going, I think his gang is as well. Dally helped them all out a few times."

**Just a short chapter there. I'm sorry for the late update! I haven't been very well, I'm still not but I'm better than I was! Next chapter is going to be the Funeral and a few bits and bobs. Then there's going be another chapter after that and then the last chapter and maybe an Epilogue. Still haven't made my mind up about the sequel or not! And if there is one it's not going be for a while, I've got my own story to finish on Fictionpress, then I need to finish Why Me. And I've had another idea for a whole different Outsiders story!**

**Anyway I hope you enjoyed this, thank you to those of you who reviewed the last chapter :) **

**Holly xxx**


	21. Chapter 21

Friday came around sooner than anyone had wanted, but even so; they all stood around the two rectangluar holes in the ground right next to each other. They had all took the day off school and work to go that morning, Tim and Angela turned up and the rest of the Shepard gang stood at the back. Lori stood with Angela with their arms hooked together, silent tears running down each of their faces. Pony stood on the other side of Lori with Sodapop who stodd with his hands folded together looking down to the floor, Steve and Two-Bit stood behind Soda, standing in the same posotion and Darry stood with Tim. Angela looked up and let out a small gasp, then nudged Lori's shoulder.

"Look who's here.." Lori looked over to where Angela was looking and saw Sylivia walking up.

"I'll go talk to her.." She un-hooked her arm from Angelas and walked over.

"Lori..." Was all Sylvia said before tears started to form in her eyes, she suprised Lori by wrapping her arms around her. "I know I wasn't the best girlfriend, I know I could have treated him better but I really did care about him... I know there were better ways for me to show it and there were no excuses for what I did, but Lori.. I loved him, I actually really loved him!" Many people wouldn't have believed her, heck if Sylivia told Lori that she loved Dallas before he was dead she wouldn't have believed her, but right then and there, there was something in her eyes that made Lori believe her.

"Come on.." Lori grabbed her hand and walked back over to where she was standing before, Angela gave her a confused look but didn't say anything. No body said anything, there were no plans to give any speeches, and everyone new that. As the dirt was being thrown ontop on the coffins they all remained silent, as the final shovel of dirt was thrown and tapped down Pony walked towards the graves with two envelopes containing letters for Johnny and Dallas. No one knew what was written in them and no one understood why he did it, but he wasn't questioned about it. Tim and his gang left, so did Sylivia after a while. Angela had stayed with Lori, the rest of them walked slowly to their cars.

"I don't know how they didn't notice." Angela whispered.

"Notice what?"

"The way you and Steve kept looking at each other. It's obvious that somethings going on between you two." Angel rolled her eyes.

"You only noticed because I told you about it."

"Well still, I bet that at least one of them know something is going on."

"Hey, Steve?" Soda started, the two were walking further behind everyone else.

"Yeah?"

"Can you remember when I asked if you liked Lori?" Steve stopped walking.

"Yeah?" He said again.

"I'm going ask you a different question this time... And I want you to tell me the truth. Is there something going on between you two? I've seen the way you look at each other." Steve sighed.

"Soda.. I'm sorry man, we were going ask y'all on Monday..."

"Ask what? If you can go out? Man I'm happy for you both! I aint goin stop you seeing each other, it's more Darry you need worry about. Don't worry, I'll keep it a secret till Monday." Soda patted Steve on the back as they started walking again.

"You mean you don't mind?"

"I've been waiting for y'all get your act togetheer, heck I'd be shocked if the rest of the gang didn't notice something strange between the two of you."

"How do you think Darry will react?" Steve asked nervously.

"I'm not sure... I'll talk to him later on, try warm him up to the idea without letting it out." Soda said.

"Really? Thank's buddie!" They both did that man hug for about 2 seconds then realeased each other.

"No problem."

Later that day Lori and Angel went to The Dingo for something to do, though Lori could tell that Angela wanted to be somewhere else instead.

"You know you don't have to stay with me." Lori said.

"I want to."

"No, you don't want to leave me on my own. Go meet Tony, I'll be fine, honestly."

"Okay," Angel sighed, "I'll go. But only because you're not on your own anymore, see you!" She said before running off. Lori looked behind her confused and saw Steve walking her way.

"Hey." He said sitting opposite her.

"Hi."

"You okay?"

"Just the same as everyone else is." She sighed, Steve nodded.

"Soda knows."

"What? How?"

"He guessed, I couldn't lie to him when he asked me." He said scratching the back of his neck.

"How did he take it?" Lori looked concerned.

"He was suprisingly alright with it. He's even going try talk Darry into the idea." Lori smiled but then let it drop.

"Is this bad? That we're happy? It's great that we're finally sorting things out between us, but Johnny and Dallas just died... We shouldn't be happy right now."

"I think Johnny and Dally would be happy for us, they wouldn't want us sulking around the place." Steve said taking hold of her hand and smiling.

Soda was sitting in the living room with Darry and Ponyboy, he had been thinking for the last half an hour what he would say to Darry.

"Things haven't been easy lately have they." He started.

"Things are never easy kiddo, we still have a lot more trouble heading our way in life."

"Yeah I know, I was just thinking how close together everything has happened. I'd love to know how Lori is handleing it all, I mean with all that shit that happened with Robby as well..."

"Yeah well, she's strong." Darry said flipping through the newspaper.

"She sure is, though I think it would be good for her to have someone there for her.." Darry looked up from the paper.

"She has the rest of the gang, she has Angela. Who else does she need?"

"We're her family and Angela is her friend, I'm talking about something more along the lines of a boyfriend maybe." Pony stopped reading his book and was now listening in on the conversation.

"A boyfriend? What guy in this town is good enough to be her boyfriend?"

"I don't mean just any random guy off the street that she doesn't know. It'd have to be someone she's familar with and maybe friends with." Soda laughed, "Thinking about you know, I reckon her and Steve would be nice together."

"Steve?" Ponyboy let out a small laugh.

"Steve Randle, your best friend, and Lori.. Your little sister?" Darry said, shocked that Soda had actually come up with something like that. Soda nodded eagerly, Darry just shook his head and carried on reading. Soda didn't know whether this was good or bad, but he would soon find out.

**I always hate it when I come to the end of stories (not that I ever have) The quality of my writing just seems to keep going down and down, I am terribly sorry for this awful chapter and for it being late. I'm sad to say the next chapter is going to be the last, and maybe an epilogue thingy ma bob. And if I do decide to do a sequel it won't be for a while**

**And for those of you who read Why me... I'm not sure if I'm going be continuing with it, I've just kind of lost where I'm going with it and not enjoying writing it anymore.**

**Thanks for reading! If you have time please leave a review :) **

**Holly xxx**


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